Largest earthquake yet – 1.6 – from Cuadrilla’s operations at Preston New Road

Comment from Frack Free Lancashire

On Wednesday night 21st August at 20.46,  local residents felt the largest earthquake yet – 1.6 – from Cuadrilla’s operations at Preston New Road. Having abandoned their attempts to frack their first well after only being able to fully fracture just two of the planned 42 stages, Cuadrilla are now trying to repeat the process. Therefore, it was a certain grim inevitability to Wednesday night’s events, but what should really give local residents pause for thought, is the fact that these were trailing events and there is nothing that can be done to mitigate them in real-time.

We deplore Cuadrilla’s attempts to downplay and trivialise these quakes by making facile comparisons with milkshakes and bags of shopping being dropped. This is a serious issue and we know that seismic activity at similar levels deformed the well bore at Preese Hall, which Cuadrilla failed to report to the relevant authorities for six months.

This is, in fact, a perfect illustration of why the limits on the seismic traffic light system must not be relaxed. The safety of residents must be prioritised before a private corporation’s greedy drive for profits at any cost.