{"id":25408,"date":"2015-11-02T12:26:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T18:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=25408"},"modified":"2015-11-02T12:26:10","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T18:26:10","slug":"environmental-groups-threaten-energy-companies-with-lawsuit-over-earthquakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/11\/02\/environmental-groups-threaten-energy-companies-with-lawsuit-over-earthquakes\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Groups Threaten Energy Companies With Lawsuit Over Earthquakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-documentcloud\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div class=\"DC-embed DC-embed-document DV-container\">\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:129.4444444444444%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;\"> <iframe src=\"\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/2500562-final-ok-earthquakes-notice-letter-with.html?container=&embed=true&responsive=false&sidebar=false\" title=\"FINAL OK Earthquakes Notice Letter With Attachments (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:0;box-sizing:border-box;\"><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><p>Environmental groups are threatening to file a federal lawsuit against four Oklahoma energy companies over earthquakes linked to oil and gas activity.<!--more--><\/p><p>Scientists say the industry practice of pumping oil and gas waste fluid underground <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/05\/05\/stateimpacts-earthquake-research-reading-list\/\">is likely responsible<\/a> for Oklahoma\u2019s earthquake boom.<\/p><p>Public Justice and the Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club argue some of the pumping \u2014 known as injection \u2014 is illegal under the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act because it may endanger the public and the environment.<\/p><p>Public Justice Executive Director Paul Bland says the groups are preparing a lawsuit because government regulators haven\u2019t responded with enough force.<\/p><p>\u201cUntil an earthquake actually injures Kevin Durant personally, it seems like the state\u2019s not going to do anything,\u201d he says. \u201cPrivate citizens are allowed under federal law to bring a case, where someone is endangering the public, to ask the court to step in and stop it, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p><p>In a letter dated Oct. 29, lawyers representing the environmental groups notified Chesapeake Energy, Devon Energy, New Dominion and Sandridge Energy of their intent to file a lawsuit after 90 days \u2014 a legal requirement and the first step in filing a lawsuit under RCRA.<\/p><p>In the letter, lawyers for the environmental groups name three actions the energy companies must take to prevent the lawsuit:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>1) Immediately substantially reduce the amounts of Production Wastes they are injecting into the ground to levels that seismologists believe will not cause or contribute to increased earthquake frequency and severity. At minimum, the current rates of injection, particularly into the Arbuckle Formation, must be reduced substantially to cause a major reduction in the current unacceptable earthquake risks;<\/p><p>2) Reinforce vulnerable structures that current forecasts show could be hit by large magnitude earthquakes during the interim period;<\/p><p>3) Establish an independent earthquake monitoring and prediction center to analyze and forecast how much Production Wastes can be injected without inducing earthquakes and track how closely the ongoing earthquakes conform to predictions. This may involve further investigation and characterization of the underlying rock, including the Arbuckle Formation.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>Fred Buxton, a vice president and general counsel for New Dominion declined to comment on pending litigation. The other three companies didn\u2019t respond to interview requests.<\/p><p>The federal RCRA law was enacted in 1976 to regulate the disposal of solid waste, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/42\/6903\">which includes<\/a> sludges, liquids and semisolid substances discarded by industrial and mining operations. If a lawsuit is filed, the environmental groups will argue drilling waste fluid is covered under RCRA.<\/p><p>Environmental groups have had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bna.com\/epa-regulates-coal-n17179921273\/\">some success<\/a> focusing on RCRA in lawsuits seeking tougher pollution rules and enforcement, including the management and disposal of coal ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public Justice and the Oklahoma Chapter of the Sierra Club argue some of the pumping \u2014 known as injection \u2014 is illegal under the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act because it may endanger the public and the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":25413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[489,654,500,546],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25408"}],"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=25408"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25420,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25408\/revisions\/25420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}