Earthquakes caused by fracking now included in USGS seismic risk maps

Earthquakes caused by human activity will now be included in the U.S. Geological Survey's seismic risk maps, the agency said on Monday after a sharp rise in quakes linked to waste water disposal wells used by the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma.

The seismic risk maps are used by emergency management officials as well as major U.S. engineering and design associations to guide how strong to construct buildings.

• Earthquakes triggered by fracking wastewater in Oklahoma

• Fracking-induced earthquakes less hazardous than natural ones, study says

• IN DEPTHMassive earthquakes: Why they happen and where they've struck

"By including human-induced events, our assessment of earthquake hazards has significantly increased in parts of the U.S.," Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project, said in a statement.

Some sevenmillion people in the Central and Eastern United States live or work in areas threatened by so-called induced seismicity, and in parts of these regions, the damage caused by earthquakes could be at parity with that seen in high-hazard regions of California, the USGS said.

Oklahoma at greatest risk

The USGS said the state with the greatest risk for hazards associated with induced seismicity is Oklahoma,followed by Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arkansas.

Oklahoma in 2015 experienced 907 magnitude3.0 or greater earthquakes, compared with just two of similar size in 2009.

In February, a 5.1magnitude quake shook the area around Fairview, Okla.,the third strongest recorded in the state.

The uptick in quakes has prompted serious concern among locals, particularly those in close proximity to the oil storage hub at Cushing, Okla., which is home to some 66 million barrels of oil and the delivery point for the widelytraded West Texas Intermediate futures contract.

"We have had some earthquakes that were way too close to those tanks," said Michael Teague, Oklahoma's secretary of energy and environment.

The disposal of saltwaterinto wells, part of the process called fracking,isa natural byproduct of oil and gas drillingand has been tied to earthquakes. Oklahoma regulators have already ordered many waste water well companies to curb operations.

No quick change to building codes

The USGS said building code committees are still determining whether to include induced earthquakes in their revisions, in part because they could be temporary.

The American Society of Civil Engineers is already in the process of publishing 2016 guidelines that do not take into account man-made earthquakes.

But the group does not anticipate updating those standards again until 2022.

"There is always a delay in design codes adapting the USGS Seismic Hazard Maps," said Muralee Muraleetharan, a civil engineering professor at the University of Oklahoma.