What to do with leftover wastewater from fracking is one of the biggest questions the industry faces today.
As we learned in a previous post, some companies put their wastewater in a frac pond or an open frac tank, and they let the water evaporate into the air, but this can cause toxins and dangerous chemicals to get into the air as well. That is why, to date, the cheapest, safest and most effective way to get rid of wastewater is by reinjecting it into the ground. But, as we are currently starting to learn, reinjecting wastewater into the ground has some unexpected consequences.
How reinjecting wastewater leads to earthquakes.
Some parts of the country with a lot of fracking wells, including Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio, Kansas, Alabama, New Mexico and Arkansas, have been subject to earthquakes in recent years, and as more and more wastewater gets pumped back into the ground, these earthquakes have grown stronger and more frequent. These earthquakes are especially astounding when you consider the fact that, before fracking, these areas were the least likely in the country to experience earthquakes. The good news is that the earthquakes aren’t thought to be the result of fracking itself, they are the result of injecting wastewater back into wells deep in the ground.
At Well Water Solutions, we can help you find a new, safer way to get rid of your wastewater without the same high risk for earthquakes. Would you like to learn more about the solutions we can offer you? If so, please stay tuned for our next blog.
