Ohio Quake Linked to Wastewater Well

by Dan Vergano, USA Today - January 3, 2012

This photo made Jan. 2, 2012 shows the site of a brine injection well owned by Northstar Disposal Services LLC in Youngstown, Ohio. The company has halted operations at the well, which disposes of brine used in gas and oil drilling, after a series of small earthquakes in the Youngstown area. Photo: Dan Pompili, Warren Tribune-Chronicle / AP

Ohio earthquakes tied to a deep wastewater disposal well are raising safety questions, amid a nationwide natural gas drilling boom.

On New Year's Eve, a magnitude-4.0 quake outside Youngstown, Ohio, shook the ground as far north as Toronto. Earthquake experts tied the event, the latest and largest in a series stretching back to March, to a 1.7-mile-deep wastewater disposal well, prompting state officials to shut it down.

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