What do you do when the only person to respond to the first scientific study on impacts of hydraulic fracturing on faults in the St. Lawrence Lowlands says he has never seen a study as twisted.
The BAPE recommended the Government map the major faults of the St. Lawrence Valley.
A fault is a place in the earth where tectonic stresses have caused it to move in the past. Like a broken tea cup that has been glued together these faults represent places where the earth might move again if put under stress. Faults can be very large and they can be only a few centimeters. This is why the BAPE recommended mapping major faults.
Depending on the type of fault, the types of rock in the many layers, and the direction of forces it is sometimes possible for faults to be conduits for oil or gas which are lighter than water to leak to surface. In even rarer cases water could overcome the forces of gravity and also migrate to surface. This is the reason the BAPE recommended mapping them.
Obviously if this case existed it is very unlikely for there to be any commercial oil or gas left since it would have already leaked away millions of years ago. This is why industry already spent enormous time and effort over many years to map the major faults south of the St. Lawrence River. We are looking where the oil or gas is still there.
We have decided not to laugh or cry but to be pleased that Mr. Durand supports that fault stability is not a risk in the St. Lawrence Lowlands. We are not quite as sure as him since our study covers only the deep area south of the St. Lawrence River. We might even suggest there should be regulations related to safe depths for hydraulic fracturing in spite of Mr. Durand’s confidence.
We hoped it would be useful to share our private data and work publicly to assist in meeting the recommendation of the BAPE. We enlisted the help of Québec based geo-scientists and are having the paper peer reviewed and translated to French. How twisted is that?