Clean Water Action released a report on Thursday that discussed the risks that oil and gas companies are posing for earthquakes in California.
The report stated that these companies are putting the state at greater risk for disaster by injecting billions of gallons of oil and gas wastewater each year into hundreds of disposal wells near active fault lines close to Bakersfield, Los Angeles and other large cities, according to Indy Bay.
Oil companies have been looking to use "acid fracturing" (acidizing) rather than hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on the Monterey Shale formation in central and southern California, Examiner reported. Acid fracturing uses acids to melt the rock. Similar to fracking, the plan is to release gas and oil from inside the rock.
The injection of the wastewater is said to be the main cause of earthquakes, rather than just fracking, according to an article published by Mother Jones. The injection lubricates geologic faults and leads to earthquakes. Fracking produces a large amount of wastewater loaded with toxic chemicals, and the flowback water would be returned underground through injection wells, according to Examiner.
Taking oil out of the Monterey Shale can result in close to 9 trillion gallons of contaminated water, which can trigger destructive earthquakes. State officials have not looked into whether earthquakes in the past were caused by fracking or disposal wells, and due to current regulations and a lack of research, they are not able to adequately protect California from such disasters, Indy Bay reported.
"This isn't rocket science," said Jhon Arbelaez, the organizer for Earthworks' Oil and Gas Accountability Project in California. "We've known for decades that wastewater injection increases earthquake risk. Since Gov. Brown resolutely refuses to learn from other communities' experience with fracking across the country, our only option to protect California families is to prevent fracking altogether."
Clean Water Action pointed out several reasons for the lack of understanding of the risks for earthquakes in California, which include the state's failure to make the oil and gas industries submit important fluid injection data, holes in earthquake monitoring networks and limited information on faults and geology, Examiner reported. The organization said the best way to keep California safe is to stop fracking, acidizing, and other unconventional ways of acquiring oil and gas.
