Some Oklahoma Residents Link Damaging Earthquake to Disposal Wells

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

July 24, 2012 | 1:08 PM

So far, reports of earthquakes caused by drilling activity have been limited to small tremors that shake more nerves than bricks and mortar. But EnergyWire reports today on an earthquake that shook Oklahoma last November, which caused serious property damage. And some residents are linking it to a nearby injection well.
The 5.6 magnitude quake struck near two deep injection wells, where wastewater from oil drilling is shot at high pressure down into the earth. These are the same types of wells that caused earthquakes in Ohio earlier this year. EnergyWire reporter Mike Soraghan reports that residents like Jerri Loveland, and seismologists, see a connection.

“The oil companies that operate the nearby wells say they couldn’t have triggered the quake. But scientists say injection certainly can unleash earthquakes. University of Oklahoma seismologist Katie Keranen, who has been studying the earthquake since the day it happened, says there’s evidence to back up Loveland’s hunch.
“There’s a compelling link between the zone of injection and seismicity,” Keranen said at a seismological conference in April. She’s one of a handful of scientists who see evidence of such a connection.”

Pennsylvania has just five deep injection wells, and the EPA is considering other proposals. But none of those operating wells have caused earthquakes in the state.