Stewart Doreen, MRT.com/Midland Reporter-Telegram
I’m ready to put a bow on this earthquake problem we have here in the Permian Basin.
I’m hoping that tremors and my house shaking become so 2021. Residents from Midland to Gardendale and Stanton deserve better than having to study up on earthquake insurance and policies that might be right for them.
Our country and world need our oil and gas, and our community and state need the benefits of being home to one of the most significant oil patches in the world. But that shouldn’t require us to wonder if another 4.5-magnitude quake (or stronger) is in our future.
It’s time for local, region and state leaders to get more serious about the issue of pushing millions of barrels of wastewater into the ground. Today, industry and West Texas leaders should call for Gov. Greg Abbott to put together committee to recommend solutions that, if needed, includes incentives or at least infrastructure to re-use industrial water effectively. For all that this region does for the rest of the state, it doesn’t seem like an extraordinary request.
We know a healthy oil and gas industry benefits all Texans, and investment now will be a benefit long into the future.
What I am talking about is being proactive – not reactive – to the issue of seismic activity in our region. We can do better than Oklahoma where there are still areas that have experienced more than 460 quakes in the last 365 days. We can certainly do better than the status quo. In Midland, there have been more than 240 quakes in the past 365 days. That total, while eye-opening, is just around 10 percent of the earthquake activity that has taken place around Mentone, which is in Loving County. The number of quakes around Mentone in the last 365 days is around 2,350, which is more than three times the number of earthquakes in Los Angeles and San Francisco combined.
This past week was also significant for the entire region as there were two quakes with magnitudes of at least 4.4. Those would be among the strongest in the Permian Basin in the last decade.
Lastly, I would offer this. Our community doesn’t need people outside our region or state thinking there is an opportunity to meddle in our affairs. We know the current administration will put its values ahead of the well-being of those in regions across the country. Right now, West Texas isn’t as defenseless as maybe our neighbors in southeast New Mexico and that has to be frustrating for those that want to speed up the transition away from oil and gas. Let’s keep it that way.
I say it is better for the people in Texas to be in control of our destiny. And just like I would like to see an underfunded Railroad Commission be provided the resources needed to regulate the industry more effectively in the 21st century, it is imperative that leaders acknowledge there should be alternatives to pumping so much water deep into the ground.