The Alberta Energy Regulator is working to determine if a fracking operation caused an earthquake near Sylvan Lake and Red Deer on Monday.
The regulator said Vesta has stopped work at the site while the AER investigates whether fracking led to the quake. AltaLink said a transformer at a substation south of Sylvan Lake tripped around the same time of the quake. The transmission company is still investigating exactly what caused the outage.
“My husband and I were awakened at 5:55 a.m. when our bed began to shake violently. My husband shot up out of bed and exclaimed, ‘What the hell was that?’,” she told Postmedia. At the time, she thought the quake was some sort of explosion.“There was a pop and the power went out, and right after the power went out the whole house shook from one end to the other,” she said.
However, Joanne Gaudet, communications officer for the town of Sylvan Lake, said there has been seismic activity in the past between Sylvan Lake and Rocky Mountain House to the west.