Oklahoma, EPA shutter 32 wells in new earthquake-prone area

The United States Geological Survey said a 5.6 magnitude quake happened Saturday morning in north-central Oklahoma, on the fringe of an area where regulators had stepped in to limit wastewater disposal. In Monday’s directive, researchers with the Oklahoma Geologic Society and the U.S. Geologic Society said the discovery of a new fault has led to more information about the fault lines in the area. Shortly afterward, geologists speculated on whether the temblor occurred on a previously unknown fault.

“The emphasis is to protect the fault that’s triggering the earthquakes”, said Tim Baker, director of the regulatory commission’s oil and gas division in Oklahoma.

Boak said while he believes the number of earthquakes overall is declining, there is the continued possibility of earthquakes or equal or larger size in the region.

The spike in state earthquakes during the past few years has been blamed in part on the oil and gas industry’s practice of pumping millions of gallons of wastewater deep underground.

The earthquakes occurred more than a week after a magnitude 5.8 quake shook Pawnee and was felt in several states, including Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. Now in the 1,116 square miles area, there are 48 Arbuckle disposal wells in the OCC jurisdiction and 19 in the EPA’s jurisdiction.

The Corporation said 32 wells will be closed, while the others will need to reduce their injection wells by 40,000 barrels a day.

Forcing oil and gas operators to stop injecting wastewater or reduce the amount they can inject means they can’t produce as much oil and natural gas, which can cause a serious financial hardship, said Chad Warmington, president of the Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association. “If you take away your disposal activity, there’s nothing else you can do with that water”. They also said Monday they’ve made a decision to allow some wells, which were closed immediately following the quake, to reopen.