TENTH SMALL EARTHQUAKE RATTLES BRAXTON COUNTY - Connection To Fracking Waste Not Determined In WV

(04/02/2013)
Braxton County residents experienced another small earthquake Easter Sunday morning just after 10 a.m.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a 2.7 magnitude quake near Frametown, recorded 200 miles away in Alexandria, Virginia.

It is at least the tenth quake recorded in the area, a couple of the epicenters near Elmira, not far from the Calhoun County line.

911 dispatchers say they got several calls from people feeling their homes shake, but no damage or injuries were reported.

"We've had earthquakes here before, but I've never heard anything like this. I just thought somebody fell down at first, but it was a lot louder and made the house move more," said Gassaway Mayor Richard Roach.

Many people living in the area heard a loud noise and then the building and homes shook.

Sunday's quake is one of several quakes that have occurred in the area over the past three years.

Increasing evidence that earthquakes in Braxton County may be tied to the natural gas industry is prompting state Department of Environmental Protection officials to talk about what to do about the quakes, according to a report in the Charleston Daily Mail.

The editor of the Braxton Citizens News, Ed Given, suspected the quakes are tied to a Chesapeake Energy site near the community of Frametown. There is where the Chesapeake injects massive amounts of wastewater into the ground.

Chesapeake denies any correlation to the quakes.

NBC News reported in 2012, that recent earthquakes in Ohio and Oklahoma have been directly linked to deep wells used to dispose of liquid wastes for hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" of natural gas.

Ohio officials shut down all drilling around a brine-injection well after a magnitude-4.0 quake rumbled through the Youngstown, Ohio, on New Year's Eve day.

That was the 11th earthquake in 2011 in the region, which is not considered seismically active.

Experts are also investigating a magnitude-5.6 earthquake east of Oklahoma City that has been linked to gas drilling.

West Virginia officials said they could determine a link to the Braxton quakes and inserting disposal of pressurized liquid fracking waste.

See EARTHQUAKE MONITORS WILL BE INSTALLED IN WV - Braxton Quakes Could Be Part Of Study