Court Will Decide if Fracking Companies Can be Held Responsible for Earthquakes [View all]

[RiverLover]

Court Will Decide if Fracking Companies Can be Held Responsible for Earthquakes
1/27/15

Oklahoma’s highest court is about to make a decision that could really shake up the way fracking companies do business in the state.

In the coming months, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court will decide whether two oil companies should be held financially responsible for injuries suffered by a woman during a 2011 earthquake thought to have been caused by drilling activity. If the woman’s lawsuit is successful, it could set a legal precedent for future earthquake claims against oil and gas companies in Oklahoma.

In other words, oil and gas wells in Oklahoma would “become economic and legal-liability pariahs,” attorney Robert Gum said in comments reported by the Tulsa World.

First, the back story. The lawsuit in question was brought by Sandra Ladra, a woman who lives in a small town called Prague. Ladra claims that on Nov. 5, 2011, she was sitting at home watching television with her family when a 5.6 magnitude intraplate earthquake struck, causing big chunks of rock to fall from her fireplace and chimney. Some of the rocks fell onto Ladra’s legs and into her lap, causing what the lawsuit describes as “significant injury.” Ladra was taken to the emergency room and treated.

Then, two years later in March 2013, scientists from the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University, and the U.S. Geological Survey published a peer-reviewed study in the journal Geology, linking the 2011 earthquake to a process called wastewater injection. During that process, companies take the leftover water used to drill wells and inject it deep into the ground.

The Geology findings were disputed by Oklahoma Geological Survey, which asserted that the Prague earthquake was more likely the result of natural causes. But at the same time, more studies across the country found connections between wastewater injection and earthquakes, including one which linked approximately 2,500 small Oklahoma earthquakes to the process....

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/01/27/court-will-decide-fracking-companies-can-held-responsible-earthquakes/