40 years ago, in an attempt to get gas out of shale in Colorado, they drilled to 8,426 feet and detonated an atomic bomb that produced a 43-kiloton blast (about three Hiroshima bombs). That did frack some gas up:
“It released 455 million cubic feet of natural gas, which was too radioactive to be used.”
Thanks to Ed Quillen for that walk down memory lane and for the following nugget, which perfectly depicts the situation here in Texas with industry’s paid protectors, the Texas Railroad Commission:
the industry prefers state governments because they’re easier to bully by packing hearings and mocking efforts to protect wildlife, along with spreading lies about how regulations, instead of low market prices, have reduced drilling and related employment.
Quillen issues a little more history that relates to the recent Barnett Shale earthquakes:
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Cleburne, Texas, which sits amid much fracking for natural gas, has experienced a “wave of small earthquakes.” There is no proof of a connection, but it does bring up anotherColorado memory from the 1960s. Starting in 1962, Denver suffered a spate of earthquakes, including a 5.3 tremor in 1967 that caused more than $1 million in damage.
What caused the quakes? Injecting fluids into a deep well at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal just north of the city — that is, pretty much the same thing as fracking.
So it is an activity that should be monitored closely, no matter whether we’re worried about clean water or stable ground.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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Who is in charge here? Detonating an atomic bomb to produce gas? Which was apparently not thought through anyway, since the gas became radioactive. DUH. Thanks for exposing the reality that Homer Simpson is running these drilling operations.
The federal government is responsible for this.
Good old cold war stories–and I agree. Now, could it be that some of these gas companies are now experimenting with an explosive fracking process instead of the conventional fluid injection under pressure technique? Just a wild thought!
Note that the Alisco Canyon
gas field in southern california
has used hydraulic injection for
waste materials in recent years.
With reference to the recent
Clerburne, Texas, events, it might
be worth looking for hydraulic
pumping ties to the Jan 17, 1994,
Northridge, California, earthquake,
near the Alisco Canyoun gas field.