Get the Facts First

The sudden swarm of earthquake activity following natural-gas drilling has left many, including the experts, speculating whether the seismic activity is natural or caused by the pumping of salt water into the ground following the drilling. Many in the small town of Greenbriar Arkansas are unsettled by increasing severity and lack of warning of the quakes following drilling activities in their community.

To what extent is a company socially responsible for informing the public about the affects of any activity in a community? According to an article in Foxnews.com "Geologists don't believe the fracking itself is a problem. But Steve Horton, an earthquake specialist at the University of Memphis Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI), is worried by a correlation between the Arkansas earthquake swarm and a side effect of the drilling and the disposal of wastewater in injection wells." Scientists are slow to draw conclusions on the drilling and offer little consensus on the subject.

The positive and negative effects of pumping of water into the ground is not fully known. As companies venture into the unknown, the populations effected should not be put in a state of uneasiness. It is the responsibitlity of the the drilling companies to research and know to what extent the injections are causing the tremors before drilling.