On Saturday, September 3, the 5.6 magnitude quake in Oklahoma that some people in Chicago, Illinois, felt, prompted a shutdown of gas-linked wastewater disposal wells in the entire state. There are about 4,200 total wells across the state and about 700 in a 15,000-square-mile “area of interest” in the area that includes the epicenter of Saturday’s temblor, near Pawnee. It is also working with the federal Environmental Protection Administration which has jurisdiction over an additional 211 square miles in Osage County to consider shutting wells there. “The oil and gas industry, Governor Fallin and our state legislature must stop putting polluters’ profits over its citizens safety and well-being, and take swift and immediate action to end this epidemic”.
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“We estimate that at any one time, there are about 3,200 active disposal wells”, Skinner said.
Oklahoma geologists have documented strong links between increased seismic activity in the state and the injection into the ground of wastewater from oil and gas production, according to a report from a state agency previous year. Since mid-2015, the state has ordered operators of some to reduce the volume of wastewater injected, in the hope of reducing earthquakes.
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And in 2015 alone, the central USA experienced 1,010 earthquakes. In addition, regions with frequent induced earthquakes may also be subject to damaging earthquakes that would have occurred independently of human activity.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation inspected roads and 180 bridges within a 30-mile radius of the epicenter and said all were found to be safe. That temblor matches a November 2011 quake in the same region. In that quake, two towers collapsed at a university in nearby Shawnee.
Susyn Klein said she felt it in southeast Norman where her “whole house rolled”.
Nebraska Public Power District’s Cooper Nuclear Station south of Brownville declared an “unusual event” just after 7 a.m. because of the minor tremors.
She says she felt the natural disaster for about 10 to 20 seconds.
Masterson went on to surmise as to why Oklahoma has been hit by so many earthquakes in the last few years.
A store employee places bottles of syrup back on a shelf while cleaning up at White’s Foodliner grocery store in Pawnee, Oklahoma, on Saturday.
One person was injured in Saturday’s quake, and at least 14 buildings were damaged, but officials were breathing a sigh of relief that the destruction wasn’t worse.
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The quake, centered in rural Pawnee County, could be felt over a seven-state area, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Randell said the man was treated at a hospital and released.
