{"id":22610,"date":"2015-01-26T10:05:38","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T16:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=22610"},"modified":"2015-01-26T10:05:38","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T16:05:38","slug":"oklahoma-supreme-court-to-decide-lawsuit-over-earthquake-near-prague-okla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/01\/26\/oklahoma-supreme-court-to-decide-lawsuit-over-earthquake-near-prague-okla\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Supreme Court to Decide Lawsuit Over Earthquake Near Prague, Okla."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Seismologists<\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Seismologists say oil and natural gas disposal wells, like this one near Sparks, Okla., are likely triggering earthquakes in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The state’s highest court will consider whether two oil companies can be held liable for injuries a woman suffered during the 2011 earthquake near Prague, Okla.<\/p>

The 5.7-magnitude earthquake was the state’s largest recorded with modern instruments, and is the largest quake scientists have linked to disposal wells<\/a>, a type of well oil and gas companies use to pump full of wastewater, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling.<\/p>

The case is “expected to set a precedent for future earthquake claims,” The Tulsa World<\/em>‘s Ziva Branstetter reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

An attorney for one of the companies has said the lawsuit, if successful, would cause energy companies to abandon wastewater disposal wells across the state.<\/p>

\u201cThese wells will become economic and legal-liability pariahs,\u201d attorney Robert Gum told a Lincoln County judge during an October hearing in the case. Gum represents New Dominion LLC, a Tulsa-based oil and gas company, in the lawsuit.<\/p>

Spess Oil Co., based in Cleveland, Oklahoma, is also named as a defendant. Gum and attorneys for Spess Oil Co. have denied the companies are responsible for triggering earthquakes.<\/p><\/blockquote>

The lawsuit was brought by Sandra Ladra<\/a> of Prague. Dozens of similar lawsuits have been filed across the country, Branstetter reports.<\/p>\n

After a Lincoln County judge dismissed Ladra\u2019s case for lack of jurisdiction, the Supreme Court opted Dec. 2 to decide her appeal instead of referring it to the state Civil Appeals Court. Attorneys for both sides view that as a sign the court wants to weigh in on issues raised by the lawsuit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state’s highest court will consider whether two oil companies can be held liable for injuries a woman suffered during the 2011 earthquake near Prague, Okla.The 5.7-magnitude earthquake was the state’s largest recorded with modern instruments, and is the largest quake scientists have linked to disposal wells, a type of well oil and gas companies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[489,500,238],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22610"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22614,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22610\/revisions\/22614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}