A Whole Lot of Shaking Going On.

THERE IS A WHOLE LOT OF SHAKING GOING ON

THE WATCHMAN

It goes without saying that the state of Oklahoma has experienced a major upswing in the number of earthquakes we have on an annual basis. Oil producers would like you to believe that injection wells are not to blame for this. Environmentalist will have you thinking that all the contaminated water being put back in the ground will contaminate the safety of your drinking water. We have a staff member who has felt only one or two of these earthquakes but then again he slept through a 7.2 magnitude earthquake while he was stationed in California in the military. We are not here to make a judgement on this, however we are here to present to the public some information that they most likely missed on the evening news or any newspaper.

What got us interested in this story was this article . This is a report on a deposition given by the former state lead seismologist stating that he was pressured by his bosses and even the President of Oklahoma University, David Boren, to make injection wells less of a reason for the cause of the earthquake swarms we have been experiencing. Those people put the life, health and wellbeing of all Oklahomans below the needs of the oil and gas industry. Looks like President David Boren is stepping down at just the right time.

The next article we found was this . What makes this so interesting is the indication that he was working an average of 80 hours a week trying to help protect Oklahomans while his bosses and the oil and gas industry were doing their best to shut him up. Who can blame the man for wanting to spend more time with his family and a more stable work environment?

Then we found this article . It supports the story above. When he departed he apparently didn't want to make any waves, but that doesn't hide the fact that he was overworked, understaffed and being misled by the administration.

The next article of interest we found was this . This is a link you need to open and read for yourself. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but we can support what he says. For years our own State Seismologist and numerous other out of state experts have been telling the state the same thing. The trouble is the Fallin Administration had allowed those warnings to go unheeded. Now we are paying the price for the unheeded warnings.

The next article we found was this . This is further validation of what the State Seismologist gave as a reason for his departure.

The next article we found was this . We would urge you to open this link and read the information yourself. Mr. Holland proposed to open a closed injection well and monitor it for seismic activity. Indications are that some of the local property owners would welcome him. This is the type of research that needs to be done to verify that injection wells are the cause and what we can do to prevent them. We were unable to find out if the proposal was ever put into action so we still suffer the same problem with injection wells as we did before.

This is an article that you must read . The State Seismologist was scolded by the fracking academia because he dared to tell the truth. He linked the injection wells with the earthquakes. That's how much power the oil and gas industry holds in this state. They have the ability to tell a sitting university President and deans to reprimand an individual because they didn't like what he said. We may be fifth in the country for oil production, but that doesn't give them the right to endanger all the men, women and children in the state just so they can make a little more profit.

The next article of interest was this . This is another well written article that made the National news. We encourage you to open the link and read it. A seismology class at the University of Oklahoma had set up the instruments needed to see how earth shaking the crowd at an OU football game would be. Instead they measured a 4.8 earthquake near Prague. We're sure that's a class day that they'll never forget.

The next article we found was this . Now we feel relatively confident that many people at the University of Oklahoma and in the oil and gas business regret the day that he gave his deposition. To us it sounds like work place harassment. He finally told the people of the state why he left his position at OU. There's another failure in proper leadership at the university level.

Then we found this article . This is what aired on the Tulsa area channels. If you take note, they used a direct feed from the affiliated Oklahoma City channel.

We actually hate using these people as a source. Let's face it the old gray lady ain't what she use to be. We did find this article though . Here they actually did some physical reporting. They talked to people that were affected by the earthquakes and they even talked to the States Seismologist. It so rare for them to report on anything in our part of the country that is factual, but we find this article to be credible.

Then we found this article . Who would have thought that Oklahoma Earthquakes would actually have a page on Wikipedia? There is a map in this article that shows you the quake activity zone in Oklahoma from 2009 through 2017. As we don't know who submitted the map we cannot verify its accuracy.

Then we found this article . This is a transcript of the court case filed by the Sierra Club against only one of the injection well operators. The Sierra Club lost in the ruling based on that fact and that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission was already taking steps to get the earthquakes under control. We feel that this was a test case and the ruling has saved the oil and gas companies untold billions of dollars.

We found this This is an actual copy of the court order and decision rendered against the Sierra Club. It's a dry read, but tells you a lot about the power that the oil and gas industry holds in this country.

We next found this . This is a new map that shows you where the most likely hood of having an earthquake in Oklahoma. The best advice we can give is buy earthquake insurance. That is the only way you can protect your investment in your home or business.

The next article we found was this . It includes a map of the known fault lines in Oklahoma as you can see if you open the link and read it. A fair warning you are going to have to zoom in on the map to actually get to the State of Oklahoma. Here is where we upset everyone. A good many of these fault lines were unknown up until the time we started having the earthquake swarm. That means it's not entirely the oil and gas companies fault. Maybe they can learn something from this.

In conclusion the idea that these earthquakes were the fault of fracking has been proven to be incorrect. Only two earthquakes from fracking are known to have occurred and both of them were up in the Northeast. The idea that they were caused from injection wells has been proven. Our Corporation Commission is taking steps to mitigate those chances by reducing and even shutting down the volume that can be pumped into an injection well. It is also very clear that the oil and gas industry has so much control over the state's economy that they can tell university Presidents and deans what to do. We knew they controlled the House and Senate, who would have ever imagined that they controlled academia too. It's time for a change.