SAN FRANCISCO — The Sierra Club weighed in to the controversy over fracking and increased earthquake risk with a lawsuit accusing a Chesapeake Energy Corp. unit, Devon Energy Production Co., and New Dominion LLC of triggering tremors in Oklahoma and Kansas.
The environmental group said the companies’ practice of injecting liquid oil and gas waste into deep ground-wells contributed to a spike of more than 5,800 earthquakes in Oklahoma in 2015, up from an annual high of 167 in the years from 1977 to 2009, according to the complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Oklahoma City. The suit, which follows more than 20 others since 2011 making similar allegations, comes after a 5.1 magnitude quake shook the region Saturday.
On Tuesday, the Oklahoma oil-and-gas regulators issued their most far-reaching directive yet in response to a surge in earthquakes by asking the operators of nearly 250 injection wells to reduce the amount of wastewater they inject underground by 40 percent.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission wants operators to reduce injections by more than 500,000 barrels of wastewater daily in an area that covers more than 5,200 square miles of northwest Oklahoma.
The earthquake that hit the area Saturday was the third-strongest in state history. People reported feeling Saturday’s quake in as many as 13 other states, including in Georgia, 900 miles away.
The number of earthquakes with a magnitude 3.0 or greater has skyrocketed in Oklahoma, from a few dozen in 2012 to more than 900 last year. Recent studies suggest injecting high volumes of wastewater could aggravate natural faults. In Oklahoma’s six most earthquake-prone counties, the volume of wastewater disposal increased more than threefold from 2012 to 2014.
Most operators comply with commission directives, though one — SandRidge Energy Inc. — initially refused to, before reaching an agreement with the agency last month. Oklahoma House Speaker Jeff Hickman, whose home is 20 miles from the epicenter of Saturday’s quake, is pushing a bill to make clear the Corporation Commission has the power to order wells to shut down or reduce volume.
Devon declined to comment on the complaint and officials at Chesapeake Operating LLC and New Dominion couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. David J. Chernicky, chairman and founder of New Dominion, said the evidence tying underground wells to earthquakes is unreliable in an interview last year with Bloomberg Businessweek.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
