generalspeaking

Sacrificing the Environment : Fracking

"[The frequent occurrence of minor earthquakes was related to fracking.]"
"Most importantly, the area is located near the southern edge of the Sichuan basin, near mountains that were formed by tectonic plate movement, which means that the area has large fault lines underground."
"Southern Sichuan is an area with particularly strong seismic activity. Earthquakes happen due to the long-term accumulation and sudden release of geological stress. From a scientific point of view, the vibrations in the Earth's crust caused by shale gas fracking can continuously create underground geological stress which leads to small earthquakes, but this can also help avoid large earthquakes in future."
Wang Xinzhi, professor of geology, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu

In Rong county, Sichuan, two people were killed and 10,000 buildings were damaged in earthquakes protesters say were triggered by fracking for shale oil. Photo: Weibo

On February 24, Gaoshan, a farming village in Sichuan Province, was struck by an earthquake before dawn. Two more earthquakes followed the next day. A major earthquake hit Sichuan in 2008, leading to the death of close to 70,000 people. That, to the people living in Gaoshan, was a natural disaster of tremendous proportions, unavoidable, a fact of life because nature cannot be tamed. The tremors they experienced in February, however, they recognize as human-derived. "The drilling", sobbed Yu Zhenghua, surveying her home.

Hydraulic facturing (fracking) technology has revolutionized the production of natural gas and oil, famously in the United States, but a boom has resulted in China as well. And with that boom has come controversy, arising everywhere fracking takes place. Thousands of residents of the village converged in Rong Cunty at a government building in protest of fracking in the hills and valleys where they live.

Security guards tried to restore order, to convince the protesters to disperse. Which they did once officials announced the suspension of fracking operations until the results of a government survey were known. Elsewhere in the region, however, fracking operations continue. Like all other countries that have embraced fracking as a revolutionary technology to free up energy reserves, China entertains thoughts of becoming energy independent, no longer reliant on foreign energy sources.

It now faces unanticipated public fury in concern over social and environmental challenges seen to threaten the country, despite its tight control of political concerns. "Sichuan is a major earthquake zone, so there is clearly a risk (inherent in fracking", explained Philip Andrews-Speed, a geologist located in Singapore. Two people died in the three earthquakes that hit the village, and another thirteen were wounded. Over 20,000 homes in three villages were left damaged, nine of which completely collapsed.

Work on a natural gas appraisal well goes on behind a pond of drilling waste in Sichuan province. Photo: Reuters

In the event, roughly 1,600 people were displaced, evacuated and having to move in with relatives or forced to live in hundreds of blue tents distributed by the local authorities. The retaining wall holding up the property along a steep hillside buckled at Ms. Yu's house and deep cracks gouged the stuccoed brick walls of the two-story house her son had built for her. "My house was built only twelve years ago, and now it is like this", she mourned.

The damage would be repaired, the authorities promised. Sitting atop the largest recoverable reserves of shale gas in the world, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, China's government has set itself goals to expand fracking in the years ahead, hoping to repeat the U.S. fracking boom. Stumbling blocks have arisen, however, since shale deposits are deeper in China, at 3.5 kilometers in Rong County, making them more expensive to tap. As well, in a process requiring the heavy use of water, scarce in some regions, adding another complication.

China's dense population makes problematical many of its best shale deposit sites, located in crowded areas, including Sichuan, with its over 80 million people. There are 39 separate wells in the 15 platforms in Rong Country, drilled or already in operation. Roads to the sites are rutted, sometimes impassable as a result of the heavy equipment involved in fracking. The once scenic valleys and terraced fields have been mutilated with the presence of long black tubes.

A noticeable increase in tremors and quakes after production began worries Rong County residents, the latest of which seismic events appeared to inflame anger beyond the accustomed simmering point. "What on earth do you want from us? Will you take the matter seriously only when there's loss of life?" one woman write on Weibo.

Labels: China, Controversy, Earthquakes, Energy, Environment, Fracking, Protests

posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, April 03, 2019