Hi All,

Today, my friend, Diane Pope shared an article with me about a new project which the National Science Foundation wishes to fund, provided the Congress agrees and casts a favorable vote to spend $17.4 million dollars.

As I read this article, I couldn't believe my eyes. Under a project called Earthscope it appears they wish to practice fluid injection here in California. It seems what happened at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal 30+ years ago wasn't enough to tell us, you can't control an earthquakes size once you practice making it happen.

For anyone who is not familiar with this case, I'll briefly say that in the 1960's at this chemical manufacturing site, they needed to dispose of some chemicals, though not known publically today exactly what chemicals they were, it is known two that were being made was rocket propellent and nerve gas. They dug a well began pumping water and these chemicals down into the earth. As soon as they did, earthquakes nearby began to occur and they did so while this was happening and when they stopped, the earthquakes stopped.

The unknown here was that the chemicals that were supposed to go into a well, seeped into the highly fractured metamorphic rock and traveled to places unknown. In an effort to stop the fluid injection process which was causing the earthquakes, Geologist David Evans began complaining to the government and finally gathered a group of citizens in his favor and in time the effort was brought to a close.

Today in California they want to have another try and see if they can determine the earthquake fault initiation process by earthquake triggering. No matter what anyone tells you, this cannot be done in a safe way as no one knows what can happen, there are so many variables, you cannot assess them until you see what happens, but in going that route, what you seek and what gets delivered is a horse of many colors.

I am doing some research to determine exactly where this is supposed to happen and I do plan on letting those at the NSF and Congress know this tax paying citizen does not approve in a large sense. I am greatly upset by this news. When you consider how many faults in California remain undiscovered, in working in one place, you can trigger an earthquake in another, it truly is unpredictable.

I invite you to read this article and make your own assessment of what you see, I saw two ambiguities in regard to the where and the what, but be sure I don't want it anywhere in this state.

Pat

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