Oklahoma Gas Wells Blamed for Quakes
奧克拉荷馬地震要怪油氣開採
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Michael Wines

PRAGUE, Oklahoma – A 5.0-magnitude earthquake – the first of three as strong or stronger over several days in November 2011 – peeled the brick facade from the $117,000 home Jennifer Lin Cooper bought the year before. Ms. Cooper, 36, could not get out until her father pried a stuck storm door. Repairs have so far cost $12,000 and forced her to take a second job, at night, to pay the bill.
2011年11月，一個規模5.0的地震－幾天內三個同樣強度或更強地震的第一個－使得珍妮佛．林．古柏前一年以11.7萬美元買的房子的正面磚瓦剝落。36歲的古柏出不來，直到父親撬開卡住的防風暴門。到目前為止整修已花掉1.2萬美元，她必須晚上去做第二分工作，才能付帳單。

At a hall meeting days later, Ms. Cooper said, state officials called the shocks, including a 5.7 tremor that was Oklahoma’s largest ever, “an act of nature, and it was nobody’s fault.”
古柏說，幾天後的市民大會上，奧克拉荷馬州政府官員說這些地震「是天災，不是任何人的錯。」包括一個該州有史以來規模最大的5.7地震。

Many scientists disagree. They say those quakes, and thousands of others before and since, are caused by wells used to bury vast amounts of wastewater from oil and gas exploration near fault zones.
許多科學家不以為然。他們說，這些地震，以及之前和以後的數以千計地震，是廢水井造成的，廢水井用來掩埋斷層區附近開採石油和天然氣所產生的大量廢水。

“As long as you keep injecting wastewater along that fault zone, according to my calculations, you’re going to continue to have earthquakes,” said Arthur F. McGarr, the chief of the induced seismicity project at the federal Earthquake Science Center in Menlo Park, California. “I’d be a little worried if I lived there.”
加州門洛公園的聯邦地震科學中心誘發性地震活動計畫主持人亞瑟．麥克加爾說：「根據我的推斷，只要你們繼續沿著斷層區注入廢水，地震就不會斷。我若住在那兒，會有點擔心。」

But in a state where oil and gas are economic pillars, elected leaders have been slow to address the problem. The State seismologist’s office, short-staffed, has stopped analyzing data on tremors smaller than magnitude 2.5 – even though a recent study says those quakes flag hidden seismic hazards “that might prove invaluable for avoiding a damaging earthquake.”
但在這麼個以石油和天然氣為經濟支柱的州，民選領袖一直不急於改正這個問題。州政府地震辦公室人力不足，已停止分析規模小於2.5的地震資料－雖然最近的研究指出，這些地震標示出隱藏的地震危險，「也許會證明對避免一場造成災情的地震極具價值。」

The state’s oil and gas wells gush profits to corporate owners, but also royalties to farmers and homeowners, and tax payments to the state and cities. The industry supports as many as one in five Oklahoma jobs.
奧州的石油和天然氣井為業主湧出源源不絕的利潤，但也分給農人和房屋所有人權利金，並繳稅給州和各市政府。這個產業提供奧州五分之一的工作。

From 2010 to 2013, Oklahoma oil production jumped by two-thirds and gas production rose by more than one-sixth. The amount of wastewater buried annually rose one-fifth, to nearly 1.1 billion barrels. And Oklahoma went from three earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater to 109 – and to 585 in 2014, and to 750-plus this year, should the current pace continue.
從2010年到2013年，奧州石油產量激增三分之二，天然氣產量也增加逾六分之一。掩埋的廢水量每年增加五分之一，逼近11億桶。而奧州規模3以上的地震，從3個增加到109個，2014年增至585個，若繼續以目前的速度增加，今年會有750多個。

Many in the industry were reluctant to comment. But Kim Hatfield, the regulatory chairman of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association and president of Crawley Petroleum, warned: “A reaction of panic is not useful.”
許多業界人士不願置評。但奧克拉荷馬獨立石油協會的監理主席、克勞雷石油公司總裁金姆．哈特菲爾德警告道：「恐慌的反應沒有用。」

The mechanics of wastewater-induced earthquakes are straightforward: Soaked with enough fluid, a layer of rock expands and gets heavier. Earthquakes can occur when the pressure from the fluid reaches a fault, through direct contact with the soaked rock or from the expanding rock. Seismologists have documented such quakes since the 1960s.
廢水誘發地震的原理很簡單：岩層浸滿液體，會膨脹和變重。當液體的壓力碰到斷層時，可能引發地震，不管是斷層與浸了液體的岩石直接接觸，或是來自膨脹岩石的壓力。地震學家自1960年代開始記錄這類地震。

But nowhere have they approached the number and scope of Oklahoma’s quakes, which have struck a fifth of the state. One reason, scientists suspect, is that Oklahoma’s main waste disposal site, a bed of porous limestone, lies close to the hard, highly stressed rock containing the faults that cause quakes.
但沒有其他地方地震的數量和範圍能與奧州相比，該州五分之一地區都發生地震。科學家推測原因之一是，奧州最大廢水處理場地，一個多孔的石灰岩床，位置靠近堅硬、壓力很高的岩石，岩石包含了會引起地震的斷層。

The salty, sometimes toxic wastewater is a byproduct of extracting oil and gas, whether by hydraulic fracturing of once-unreachable shale deposits, commonly called fracking, or from conventional wells. Most is pumped out of the ground with oil or gas, then returned to the earth in a so-called disposal well, often at a different location.
含有鹽分，有時有毒的廢水是抽出石油和天然氣的副產品，不論是用水力壓裂法，一般稱為壓裂法，從過去無法企及的油頁岩藏抽取，或是從傳統的油井抽取。大部分廢水是與石油或天然氣一起從地下汲出，再注入一個所謂的廢水處理井送回地下，廢水井和油井通常在不同地點。

Some other states like Arkansas and Kansas have imposed blanket shutdowns or cutbacks on wells near active quake zones.
其他一些州，像是阿肯色和堪薩斯，已強制全面關閉或減少靠近地震活躍區的井。

Federal seismologists have for a year warned of rising earthquake risks. Last month, a South African geophysicist delivered the most specific warning yet: Another magnitude 5-plus quake could occur by 2016, and one fault running through Stillwater and two other cities could yield up to a magnitude 6.5 shock.
聯邦地震學家一年來不斷警告地震風險升高。上個月，一位南非地球物理學家傳達迄今最明確的警告：2016年之前還會發生一次規模5以上的地震，而且一條經過斯蒂爾沃特市和另兩個城市的斷層，可能發生規模6.5的地震。

Continental Resources, one of the state’s biggest oil and gas companies, has been arguing in newspapers, on television and to regulators that the earthquake epidemic is not man-made, but part of an unusually active period for quakes worldwide.
奧州最大的石油和天然氣公司之一、大陸資源公司一直在報紙上、電視上，以及主管官員面前辯稱，地震流行不是人為造成的，而是因為全球處於不尋常的地震活躍期。

Still, Robert G. Gum, a lawyer for New Dominion, warned at a hearing that if juries hold the companies liable for Prague’s earthquakes, “these wells will become economic and legal liability pariahs. They will be shut down.”
還有，另一家公司New Dominion的律師羅伯．岡姆在一場聽證會上警告，如果陪審團裁決這些公司必須為普拉格的地震負責，這些井將成為經濟和法律上的負資產。它們將被關閉。」

Ms. Cooper, who is part of a class-action suit, said: “If the truth destroys something, then it needs to be destroyed.”
參與集體訴訟的古柏說：「如果真相要摧毀某樣東西，它就該被摧毀。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/us/as-quakes-rattle-oklahoma-fingers-point-to-oil-and-gas-industry.html

2015-04-21聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 田思怡譯 原文參見紐時週報十版上