Last year Oklahoma recorded 857 quakes. That’s more than all the remaining states
(excluding Alaska) combined.
The previous year (2014) Oklahoma had a record-setting year logging
in 585 quakes, after the 2013 record-setting year with 106 quakes.
To end the year, a series of 2.9 or greater earthquakes shook
the Edmond area, the northeast part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.
Those quakes have at least one state legislator up in arms. “This has been
going on for five years,” says State Rep. Richard Morrissette (D. 92). “At what
point are we, the policy makers, going to address this issue and take it seriously?
We need to shut these wells down.”
Morrissette claims the state’s Corporation Commission has the authority to act, but is doing nothing. "This is a preventable disaster that our
policy makers at 23 and Lincoln and the Corporation Commission refuse to
address, because they're afraid politically to act," he told local news
reporters.
Or it could be that the energy companies are refusing to comply with the Commission’s directives. On December 2, the state sent out
letters to six energy companies ordering them to reduce waste water disposal or
shut their wells down all together. One company, Sandridge Energy, has refused
to close the six problem wells.
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| letter to policy holder re: earthquakes |
