Oklahoma Woman Blaming Fracking Wastewater for Quake Can Sue
Ladra v. New Dominion LLC, SD-113396, Supreme Court of the
State of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City).
June 30, 2015 — 5:34 PM EDT Updated on July 1, 2015 — 12:17
PM EDT
(Updates with
industry spokesman in 11th paragraph.)
By Laurel Brubaker Calkins
(Bloomberg) –- Oklahoma’s Supreme Court said New Dominion
LLC can be sued for damage caused by an earthquake that a woman blames on
disposal wells tied to fracking, in what may be the first such case to head to
a jury trial.
Sandra Ladra sued New Dominion and Spess Oil Co. for injuries
suffered to her knees and legs in November 2011, when a 5.0 magnitude
earthquake struck near her home in central Oklahoma. She said the tremor caused
the rock facing on her two-story fireplace and chimney to fall into the living
room, where she was watching television with her family.
Oklahoma, a region not known for seismic activity, has
experienced a rash of earthquakes since 2009, the same year area oil companies
began using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to shatter deep rock layers to
extract oil and gas. Fracked wells produce large quantities of wastewater,
which drilling companies inject into ultra-deep disposal wells, which critics
blame for causing earthquakes.
Richard Andrews, Oklahoma’s state geologist, published a
study in April concluding it’s “very likely” the 600-fold increase in
earthquake activity experienced in some parts of the state was triggered by the
injection of wastewater in disposal wells rather than by the fracking activity
itself.
Quake Rate
Oklahoma’s earthquake rate has increased from 1.5 temblors a
year before 2008 to an average rate of 2.5 a day, Andrews said in the April 21
report.
Since 2011, more than 20 lawsuits have been filed against
companies including BHP Billiton Ltd., Chesapeake Energy Corp., Royal Dutch
Shell Plc and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP that allege underground injection
activities caused earthquakes in Arkansas and Texas, according to a tally of
cases compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.
A July 2014 study published in the journal Science found
that four high-volume disposal wells owned by New Dominion on the outskirts of
Oklahoma City may have accounted for 20 percent of all seismic activity in the
central U.S. from 2008 to 2013.
David J. Chernicky, chairman and founder of New Dominion,
has said the evidence tying underground wells to earthquakes is unreliable. He
was dismissive of Ladra’s lawsuit in an interview
this year and expressed confidence New Dominion will prevail.
‘About Science?’
“I deal with science,” he said. “That’s what this will come
down to. Is it about science? Or is it about emotion?”
New Dominion, based in Tulsa, and Spess Oil didn’t
immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment on the suit. Robert Gum,
New Dominion’s lawyer, also didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.
“Decades of scientific research have demonstrated that
induced seismicity only occurs under specific and rare circumstances,” Steve
Everley, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, a research program funded by the
Independent Petroleum Association of America, said in an e-mail Wednesday.
Everley said the industry disputes links between quakes and
the wastewater wells, which have been used in that region for a generation.
“Underground wastewater injection has been safely occurring
in Oklahoma and across the country for at least a century, and produced water
volumes were higher in Oklahoma in the 1980s than they are today,” he said.
Harold Hamm
The legal fight over fracking-related activities and
earthquakes in Oklahoma now includes Harold Hamm, the chief executive officer
of Continental Resources Inc. Hamm filed a state court defamation lawsuit
Friday against a man who accused him in a Facebook posting of trying to
“squelch” a study on the state’s earthquakes, according to a complaint.
In Ladra’s case, the Oklahoma Supreme Court reversed a trial
court’s ruling that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the
energy industry, has exclusive jurisdiction over cases concerning oil and gas
operations.
The regulatory body “is without authority to hear and
determine disputes between two or more private persons or entities in which the
public interest is not involved,” the high court said in its decision Tuesday.
Stating that a public-rights dispute “must arise between
government and others,” the court found the commission “is without the
authority to entertain a suit for damages.” It ordered the state district court
to proceed to weigh the merits of Ladra’s argument.
First Jury
Her lawsuit is the first of its kind headed toward a jury
trial, according to a lawyer for Ladra.
Scott Poynter, a spokesman for the injured woman and her
attorney, said Ladra’s case will “be stuck for a while” if the oil companies
ask the court for reconsideration. Similar cases in Arkansas and Texas didn’t
make it as far as jury trials, he said.
“People like to say these cases are about fracking, but it’s
about a byproduct of fracking,” he said Tuesday in a phone interview.
Poynter said Ladra, 64, has been told she may need
knee-replacement surgery.
The case is Ladra v. New Dominion LLC, SD-113396, Supreme
Court of the State of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City).