At a public forum in Azle Wednesday night, 四虎影院, StateImpact Texas and a panel of experts gathered to talk about what's behind the North Texas earthquake swarm.
Since late last year, nearly three dozen earthquakes have rocked the Azle-Reno area northwest of Fort Worth. And although the quakes are considered relatively small, they鈥檝e been large enough to cause damage and raise alarm.
Both the mayors of Reno and Azle believe there is a link to the disposal wells from oil and gas drilling in the area.
鈥淐ommon sense tells me if you take millions of gallons of water and pump it down into a fault bed, you can鈥檛 expect anything else. Common sense tells you it's going to shuffle and move things around. That fluid has to go somewhere,鈥� said Mayor Linda Stokes of Reno.
Stokes says people in her city want the wells shut down. That won鈥檛 happen until more research is done. SMU seismologist Heather DeShon is among the experts gathering data from 12 stations that measure earthquake activity.
Wednesday night, DeShon announced that her research shows the quakes generate as deep as five miles below the surface.
鈥淲e know where the earthquakes are occurring and we know what sense of displacement takes place along faults,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e now working on trying to understand if there is a link between oil and gas industry activities and these earthquakes."
Both scientists and oil industry representatives agree the process will not be quick. Bill Stevens is a government relations consultant for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a year, maybe two years before we have those answers,鈥� he said.
But many residents here have already made up their minds.
John Hamilton, who lives in Azle, wishes there were a moratorium on all drilling activity.
鈥淎 lot of rhetoric, a lot of bureaucracy, government inaction,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t just takes a long time for anything to happen. The wheels just move slowly.鈥�
Kathy Lingle, who lives in Azle, says she was still left wondering who will pay for damage earthquakes have caused to homes.
It may feel like the Texas Railroad Commission and Congress are moving slow, but Stokes says momentum is building.
鈥淭his is actually moved through in my experience with city government and now state government; this has moved faster than anything I鈥檝e seen,鈥� Stokes said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 moving because you鈥檙e talking.鈥�
Listen to the June 18 earthquake forum
More from StateImpact Texas
Other media coverage of the earthquake forum
KXAS-TV (Channel 5)
WFAA-TV (Channel 8)
(Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
四虎影院's earthquake series
Over the past week, 四虎影院 has been airing stories about the North Texas earthquakes.
Earthquake coverage
For several months, 四虎影院 and reporters have covered the earthquake swarm.
