Earthquake Suits Pile Up Against Oklahoma Energy Companies

Sandra Ladra’s home in Prague required significant repairs after a 2011 earthquake measuring 5.6. Ladra is among several plaintiffs suing energy companies in state and federal court over earthquakes in recent years. 

With a new lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club Tuesday, some of the state’s largest energy companies now face lawsuits seeking class-action status in two counties and action in federal court aimed at holding them responsible for Oklahoma’s increasingly violent earthquakes.

The latest lawsuit comes just three days after the state’s third largest earthquake, a 5.1, struck near the town of Fairview in northwest Oklahoma near the Kansas border. Also Tuesday, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission announced details of a plan to reduce wastewater injection over a 5,000-square-mile area of western Oklahoma.

The lawsuit by the Oklahoma chapter of the Sierra Club names Devon Energy Production Co., Chesapeake Operating LLC and New Dominion LLC, and is filed in the Western District of Oklahoma.

Read the whole story at the Frontier.