A second lawsuit has been filed this week over earthquake damage in central Oklahoma. The suit was filed in Logan County District Court by Lisa Griggs and April Marler and is asking a judge to allow it to be a class-action lawsuit against Devon Energy, Chesapeake Operating LLC, New Dominion and SandRidge Energy.
Griggs and Marler claimed their homes have been damaged due to earthquakes “caused by the Defendants’ negligent wastsewater disposal operations.” The suit also alleges the operations continue and so are the earthquakes.
To avoid a challenge that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission is not the proper place for such a challenge, the suit said “Jurisdiction in this Court is proper. This Court has personal jurisdiction over Defendants as they do substantial business in the State of Oklahoma.” The suit said the OCC “does not have jurisdiction over the property damage claims asserted in this complaint.”
The suit also referred to a State Supreme Court ruling made last year in which the state’s first lawsuit against energy companies over earthquake damage in Prague was remanded to Lincoln County District Court rather than the Corporation Commission. The legal action also blamed the increased injection well operations on hydraulic fracturing.
“In recent years, scientific studies have established a causal link between the injection of production wastes into the ground through disposal wells and earthquakesw in Oklahoma. According to the USGS, hydraulic fracturing, long-term wastewater injection, and enhanced oil recovery have all inducted earthquakes in the United States and Canada in the past few years,” stated the suit.
Lisa Griggs maintains her home in Guthrie has suffered extensive damage due to more than 100 earthquakes of greater than 3.0 in magnitude in the past two years. The most significant earthquakes and damages to her home occurred beginning in February 2014. The suit says the damage includes shifts to the piers of her home’s foundation, cracks to the concrete block forming the foundation, separation of the chimney from the home, separation of the cabinets from walls, cracks and separations to exterior brick veneer and mortar joints, cracks to drywall, wracking of doors, damages to door casings and separations in door and window trim. The suit says the damage to the Griggs home is in the thousands of dollars.
Marler lives in Choctaw and says her home suffered the same kind of damage from the more than 100 earthquakes.
Unlike the suit filed in Oklahoma County on Monday where the plaintiffs want an immediate stop to the injection well operations the Logan County lawsuit asks for it to be made into a class-action lawsuit. It also wants compensatory damages, punitive damges and “all other relief to which Plaintiffs and the Class are entitled or that the Court deems just and proper.”
