A district court judge has approved class-action status for a lawsuit accusing an Tulsa oil company of being responsible for damage caused by earthquakes.<\/p>
The judge ruled that residents and business owners with property in nine counties \u2014 Cleveland, Creek, Lincoln, Logan, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, Payne, Pottawatomie and Seminole \u2014 can join a 2015 lawsuit<\/a> brought by resident Jennifer Lin Cooper after a string of earthquakes shook near the city of Prague in 2011.<\/p> <\/p> The lawsuit accuses New Dominion of operating wastewater disposal wells that triggered the shaking, which peaked with a 5.7-magnitude earthquake that injured two people and damaged more than a dozen buildings.<\/p> New Dominion President and General Counsel Fred Buxton declined to comment on the pending lawsuit, but the company has denied causing the earthquakes in court filings.<\/p> The Prague earthquake was the first Oklahoma temblor scientists linked<\/a> to the energy industry practice of pumping oil-field wastewater into underground disposal wells.<\/p>