Friends protest earth tremor
Quakers protest about earth tremors caused by fracking in Lancashire
Quakers joined hundreds of people in a rally outside Cuadrilla’s shale gas site this month demanding a halt to fracking in Lancashire after a record-breaking earth tremor caused damage to buildings.
The tremor on the bank holiday of 26 August was an embarrassment to Cuadrilla which has been arguing that the current seismic threshold of 0.5-magnitude at which fracking operations must be suspended is too low. The company has also previously maintained that any microseismic events caused by fracking would not be felt or cause damage.
Quaker Hilary Whitehead, from No Faith in Fracking, went to the rally on 1 September at Preston New Road (PNR) near Blackpool and told the Friend: ‘We knew it was likely to happen because it was a very faulted area. St Annes [nearby] is built on a very sandy bay. There was damage to property in the vicinity, such as cracks in walls, but it was felt more in St Annes. It was frightening, but one good thing is that, because of the earthquake, it has woken up more locals and there are new faces showing up.’
One resident described the event on television: ‘I was in the living room with my wife having breakfast and the whole house shook… We ran outside. My neighbour in her seventies came running out. She was really distressed.’
As activists gathered at PNR in protest at the 128 tremors in sixteen days reported by ‘Drill or Drop?’ last month, the company released a statement apologising for the 2.9-magnitude tremor and saying it would pay for damage caused.
The statement said: ‘We are sorry for any concern this has caused. We are in the process of visiting local people who have raised concerns about minor damage to their property and will repair any damage that is assessed to have been caused by the seismic events.’
According to the company, the event lasted for 2-3 seconds and was felt by many people. The ground motion was 5-8mm/second, it said, compared with 6-15mm/second typically allowed in the construction industry. It added that fracking remained suspended at the site.
