New Phenomenon of “Frack Quakes” Problem for Texas Homeowners

Earthquakes in Texas?

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• Although the word “earthquake” is typically associated with California

• Homeowners in Texas are now also feeling the ground shake

Texas Homeowners

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• In certain areas within the state, customers of Texas homeowners insurance companies have been experiencing a troubling rise in the frequency of earthquakes in their own back yards.

Fracking

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• The activity, known as “fracking”, is being blamed for the extensive increase of tremors in the state as well as damage to numerous homes.

• The Texas insurance industry and the various energy companies, who are engaging in the fracking, can’t seem to agree on what is causing the quakes.

• If the shaking ground results from the fracking and not from natural causes, coverage for damages may not automatically be provided by their homeowner’s insurance companies, leaving policyholders out on a limb to figure out their next move.

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Insurance Claim Rejected

• Texas insurance companies are facing more and more claims from “frack quakes”, many homeowners are discovering that their policies won’t cover the damages.

• The reason given by the insurer for denying the claim…quakes were man-made.

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• Energy companies insist that there is no direct connection between the fracking wells and the earthquakes.

• Texas Alliance of Energy Producers has created a task force to look into the matter by examining the wells that are experiencing the quakes.

• The earthquakes have been relatively small by California standards – under a 4.0 magnitude – and, generally, they haven’t been powerful enough to cause any major damage.

• Their sudden occurrence can lead to frayed nerves, not to mention draw the concern and attention of state leaders, resulting in the hiring of a seismologist by the Texas Railroad Commission, the organization that oversees the gas and oil industry in the state, to study the activity.

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• Residents who testified of gaping sinkholes in fields, cracked ceilings and splintered windows that they believe are related to the tremors.

• Natural quakes are quite rare in Texas, according to the University of Texas Institute of Geophysics; at least they were until they began occurring at an alarming rate in 2008, when the hydraulic fracturing for natural gas started in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

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