Oklahoma Residents Sue Energy Companies Over Earthquake Damage

[deminks]

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/01/12/3738417/oklahoma-earthquake-residents-lawsuit/

Oklahoma has been hit by swarms of earthquakes over the last few years, and some residents have had enough.

This week, a group of 14 homeowners in Edmond, Oklahoma filed a lawsuit against 12 energy companies, claiming that the companies’ fracking operations have contributed to this uptick in earthquakes. Specifically, the lawsuit targets the companies’ wastewater disposal wells, claiming that the injection of fracking wastewater into these wells “caused or contributed” to earthquakes and constituted an “ultrahazardous activity.”

In the lawsuit, filed in Oklahoma County court, the residents focus on two earthquakes — of 4.3 and 4.2 magnitude — that struck Edmond on December 29 and January 1. The plaintiffs say they suffered damage from the earthquakes, and that the energy companies were “negligent, careless, and reckless” in their treatment of the earthquake risks surrounding wastewater injection.

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These earthquakes have also spurred other lawsuits in the state. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled last year that people could sue oil companies for damages claimed to be caused by earthquakes. That was good news for Sandra Ladra, who sued Tulsa-based oil and gas company New Dominion LLC for damages related to a November 2011 earthquake. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling means that her case can proceed. And another lawsuit seeks class-action status for residents affected by earthquakes in multiple Oklahoma counties.

(end snip)

[atreides1]

1. Good luck with that!

Despite what the state Supreme Court has decided...what are the chances that the federal courts will agree?


Poor foolish peasants, to think that you actually believe that those you elected are your representatives....