never really had significant earthquakes before but they re now having hundreds of them, including some of pretty good size. basically the whole town of azle, texas decamped to the state capitol in austin on a bus trip to try to convince the texas state government to please do something to stop the earthquakes in their town. but since that would involve interfering with production of oil and gas so far the people of azle have had no joy from the state government. in south texas a lot of the problem is air pollution. when the texas commission on environmental quality got their investigators called out to a home in carnes county, which is south texas, a family there was complaining about toxic smells and weird acrid fumes emanating from the drilling rigs by their hour, the investigators from the state head up. they turned on their monitors. and then the investigators themselves reported that they evacuated the area quickly because they were afraid of their own exposure to what they just
earthquakes in texas shaking parts of north texas that have never really had significant earthquakes before but they re now having hundreds of them, including some of pretty good size. basically the whole town of azle, texas decamped to the state capitol in austin on a bus trip to try to convince the texas state government to please do something to stop the earthquakes in their town. but since that would involve interfering with production of oil and gas so far the people of azle have had no joy from the state government. in south texas a lot of the problem is air pollution. when the texas commission on environmental quality got their investigators called out to a home in carnes county, which is south texas, a family there was complaining about toxic smells and weird acrid fumes emanating from the drilling rigs by their hour, the investigators from the state head up. they turned on their monitors. and then the investigators themselves reported that they evacuated the area quickly becau
water-intensive process has to go somewhere and a lot of times they inject that wastewater into injection well sites. the state of oklahoma has more than 4,000 injection wells. the state seismologists told the new york times in december that injection wells can sometimes cause earthquakes. quote, could we be looking at some cumulative tipping point? question, that s absolutely possible. or it could be something else. the point is that it s hard to be sure in oklahoma. even as they re having this huge swarm of earthquakes right now. it s hard to draw a conclusion one way or the other about this particular side effect of this very lucrative oil and gas industry that s so important to the local economy. a few weeks ago an this show we reported on azle, texas, a suburb of ft. worth. neighbors there traced a swarm of quakes in their town and azle, a pair of local injection wells. when the people of azle could not get answers, they traveled 200 miles to the state capitol in austin to plea
injection well sites. the state of oklahoma has more than 4,000 injection wells. the state seismologists told the new york times in december that injection wells can sometimes cause earthquakes. quote, could we be looking at some cumulative tipping point? question, that s absolutely possible. or it could be something else. the point is that it s hard to be sure in oklahoma. even as they re having this huge swarm of earthquakes right now. it s hard to draw a conclusion one way or the other about this particular side effect of this very lucrative oil and gas industry that s so important to the local economy. a few weeks ago an this show we reported on azle, texas, a suburb of ft. worth. neighbors there traced a swarm of quakes in their town and azle, a pair of local injection wells. when the people of azle could not get answers, they traveled 200 miles to the state capitol in austin to plead their state with regulators. azle, texas, is not the only place.
with regulators. azle, texas, is not the only place. in southern texas, lor raid ded corpus christi, companies are fracking and dealing with the wastewater from fracking and shipping fossil fuels to the market. it s called the eagle ford shale. the eagle ford shale play. you can see here the wells in just one county in the eagle ford shale. in this part of southern texas, people who live next to the stuff say they are concerned about most is not necessarily earthquakes or, say, fears that their tap water might turn flammable as we ve seen in other states with lots of fracking, what people in that part of texas are saying is the entire enterprise of getting this stuff out of the ground and ready for sale may be creating air pollution that they have not seen before. texas energy executives say their industry follows the rules. texas regulators say they say, quote, overall shale play activity does not significantly