Will leaders address the Midland earthquake issue?

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I’m ready to conquer the earthquake problem that we have here in the Permian Basin.

I hope the earthquakes and shaking of my house will be through 2021. Residents from Midland to Gardendale and Stanton deserve better than having to study about earthquake insurance and what policies might be right for them.

Our country and our world need oil and gas, and our society and state need the benefits of being home to one of the most important oil regions in the world. But that shouldn’t require us to wonder if there’s another 4.5-magnitude (or stronger) earthquake in our future.

It is time for local, regional and state leaders to get more serious about the issue of flushing millions of barrels of sewage into the ground. Today, industry leaders and West Texas should invite Governor Greg Abbott to form a committee to recommend solutions that, if necessary, include incentives or at least infrastructure to effectively reuse industrial water. With all that this region does for the rest of the state, it doesn’t seem like an unusual request.

We know that a healthy oil and gas industry benefits all Texans, and investing now will be beneficial long into the future.

What I’m talking about is being proactive – not reacting – to the issue of seismic activity in our region. We can do better than Oklahoma as there are still areas that have had more than 460 earthquakes in the last 365 days. We can certainly do better than the status quo. In Midland, there have been more than 240 earthquakes in the past 365 days. That total, while eye-opening, represents only about 10 percent of the earthquake activity that occurred around Menton, in Loving County. The number of earthquakes around Menton in the last 365 days was about 2,350, which is more than three times the number of earthquakes in Los Angeles and San Francisco combined.

Last week was also significant for the entire region as there were at least two magnitude 4.4 earthquakes. These will be among the strongest in the Permian Basin in the past decade.

Finally, I will present this. Our society does not need people outside our region or our country to think of an opportunity to meddle in our affairs. We know that the current administration will put its values ​​before the well-being of those in regions across the country. Right now, West Texas isn’t as defenseless as our neighbors in southeastern New Mexico, and that should be frustrating for those who want to speed up the transition away from oil and gas. Let’s keep it that way.

I say it’s better if the people of Texas control our destiny. Just as I would like to see the underfunded Commission on Railroads being resourced to organize industry more effectively in the twenty-first century, it is imperative that leaders recognize the need for alternatives to pumping too much water underground.

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