Responding to geologists who claim they have made direct links between fracking operations and seismic activity in the state, Ohio regulators on Friday pulled permits for at least one drilling operation. Image credit: greensefa

According to the Associated Press:

State Oil & Gas Chief Rick Simmers told The Associated Press on Friday that the state has halted drilling indefinitely at the site near Youngstown where five minor tremors occurred in March following investigative findings of a probable link to fracking.

A deep-injection well for fracking wastewater was tied to earthquakes in the region in 2012.

Simmers says Ohio will require sensitive seismic monitoring as a condition of all new drilling permits within three miles of a known fault or existing seismic activity of 2.0 or greater. Drilling will pause for evaluation with any tremor of 1.0 magnitude and will be halted if a link is found

This will undoubtedly come as good news for anti-fracking activists who have been accusing ‘Big Oil’ of covering up the negative health and environmental impacts of the controversial practice for years. Ohio is not the only state that has been reporting unusual seismic activity near fracking sites, Texas and Oklahoma have also been having similar issues.

Source: commondrems.org

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