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 coweuld not get answers, they traveled 200 miles to the state capitol in austin to plead their state
azle, texas, is not the only place. in southern texas, laredo, 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
hours, quote, the three-member commission remained noncommittal about a response to the tremors. so what happens next? how does a tiny city like azle take care of itself here, when the very ground on which it is built is starting to betray them? they are saying they need help from their state and so far they are not getting it. joining us now for the interview is the mayor of azle, texas. mayor, thank you very much for being with us. i appreciate your time tonight. thank you for having me. let me just just ask you first, knowing what the magnitude is, isn t the best way to understand how bad these earthquakes are? have you felt them, yourself? how bad are they in town? they re fairly bad. it depends on what kind of structure you are in as to how much you feel it. but the first earthquake i felt was actually during a city council meeting. we had a meeting and that one it felt like somebody kicked the back of your chair. i know that we heard a resident there talk about
mayor of azle, thank you for being willing to explain this to us tonight. i hope you stay in touch as you keep up this fight. definitely. thank you. lots of news tonight, including a surprising turn in virginia politics and corruption investigations. still lots to come tonight. i told you, it s a busy day. stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is kevin. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he s agreed to give it up. that s today? [ male announcer ] we ll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i ve got to take more pills. yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? for my pain, i want my aleve. [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. paws off pal. [ female announcer ] new charmin ultra soft is so soft you can actually see the softness with our new comfort cushions. plus you can use up to 4 times less.
they re not a common feature in that part of the country. that quake took everybody by surprise. then the next day, it happened again, this time a 2.7 magnitude earthquake which hit around 11:00 in the morning. that same night two, more earthquakes. what? something was going on in azle that had never happened before. did you feel it? another earthquake rumbled through north texas. some homeowners are reporting minor damage after that quake struck. it was around 6:40 near azle. it measured 3.6. that s the 12th earthquake this month alone. it is also the strongest in five years. the 12th earthquake if two-and-a-half weeks? that was in november. then it started getting worse. it seems like every single day now, we are reporting on yet another earthquake at the parker county line. now we know that where i am standing right now along boyd road, this is the epicenter of