Army Corps of Engineers worried about the impacts of fracking on dams
Posted September 15, 2011 in Health and the Environment
In late July the Dallas Morning News reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has declared a 3,000-foot buffer around its dams and water-control structures in most of Texas and several other states, within which it will not allow new wells, drilling pads or pipelines.
The News also reported that the Corps has a national team studying potential risks to dam safety from minerals extraction, including the potential risk that fracking could cause shifts along natural faults and weaken dam foundations, whether extracting large volumes of gas beneath or near a dam might make rock and soil subside, and whether injecting fracking waste into underground disposal wells can trigger earthquakes.
The News quotes two dam safety experts. I am pasting the quotes below because the article is only available with subscription:
Bruce Tschantz, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee and first chief of dam safety at the Federal Emergency Management Agency: “Until the science involving any short- and long-term relationship between hydraulic fracturing and foundation destabilization, dam safety and reservoir stability is better understood, it is my general opinion as a hydraulic engineer that we should approach hydrofracturing in the vicinity of these structures very cautiously."
Stephen Wright, professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at the University of Texas: “It seems reasonable that the corps is researching this issue. I am pleased that the corps takes the position of placing public safety of paramount importance. I hope everyone would be as conscientious.”
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Comments
HempFor Power — Sep 15 2011 11:45 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRJMMQnB9vU&feature=related They already took everything else why not the bridges and dams too. :( Soo very sad trillions of gallons of oil wasted and no closer to independence then we are a major quake put solar pannels on the moon.
Paul Burke — Sep 16 2011 12:11 AM
Sea Turtles thrown alive from Corexit into bonfires. Bonfires belong on the levees at night.
Bilions of sand crabs decimated dead from Corexit you could smell them dead from miles.
What a splendid way for the Army to protect the enviroment.