COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Seattle Seahawks haven't played in Cleveland since 2011. That was before shale gas and hydraulic fracturing were an issue.

The Browns beat them back then -- 6-3 in front of 66,350 fans. Now, another Seahawk visit, and all their stomping and cheering, could have geological and political implications.

Seahawk fans go way beyond the Dawg Pound. They have caused earthquakes.

Minor quakes as quakes go, measuring between 1.0 and 2.0.

But that's large enough to set off the alarms under the new special permitting rules the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has issued on hydraulic fracturing of horizontal wells in Ohio's Utica shale.

Any company looking for a permit to drill and fracture the Utica shale under the Buckeye state must now first check to see whether there are fault lines - cracks - in the rock within three miles of the proposed well.

If geologic maps show there are faults -- or if minor quakes greater than 2.0 have already occurred in an area where a well is being considered -- drillers will have to first set up a seismic monitoring network.

Any seismic shaking during the fracturing that measures greater than 1.0 -- impossible for most people to feel but well within the range of Seahawk fans' foot stamping and cheering ability -- means all work must stop until the state figures out where the quake came from. If the quake can be linked to the well, the state can permanently suspend operations at the site.

That's the rule that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources announced Friday. And on Monday, the department began re-evaluating some 400 permits for wells that have not yet been drilled. Some of those permits may be amended under the new permit standards.



"While we can never be 100 percent sure that drilling activities are connected to a seismic event, caution dictates that we take these new steps to protect human health, safety and the environment," said James Zehringer, director of the department, in a prepared statement. "Not only will this reasonable course of action help to ensure public health and safety, but it will also help us to expand our underground maps and provide more information about all types of seismicity in Ohio."

Nobody in the industry has seen the exact language of the permit changes, but the political trembles have begun anyway.

Thomas Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, spent most of the weekend and all day Monday talking to oil and gas companies, and to lawmakers.

Although the new permit conditions don't require a change in the law, legislators were curious about the issue, he said.

And so is the industry.

"My colleagues across the country are expressing concern about this," Stewart said. "And we are talking to our members in Ohio.

"The wider concern is whether this means that a large swath of people's property is taken off the table. And if you, a company, have a lease, will you not be able to drill it?"

Quoting a CNN report from 2013, Stewart said the U.S. Geologic Survey has estimated that about 1.3 million earthquakes occur annually that register between 2.0 and 2.9. They are classified as minor.

"The Appalachian Basin (of which eastern Ohio is part) is ancient, and ancestral faulting is known to be all over the place," he said. "That's true almost everywhere you drill for oil and gas.

"There is not a geologist in the world surprised by faulting. It is when you are on a slip fault where there are different pressures, where you get seismic event," he said.

The new quake rules are in response to a series of earthquakes in Poland Township near Youngstown last month. The department of natural resources determined the epicenter was under a well being fractured. The state has suspended drilling and fracturing operations there.

"The ODNR has performed its mission, which we support," said Stewart. "It has tried to look at this event in Youngstown and come up with a response.

"It needs refinement and understanding. The governor and the industry need to put this into perspective and understand the economic consequences of what they are proposing."