While the city of Pawnee and the Pawnee Nation prepare to hold an earthquake forum on Saturday, some members of the Ponca Tribe make it clear they firmly blame the energy industry’s wastewater injection wells for causing earthquakes in the region. Especially the 5.8 magnitude early-September quake that turned out to be the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma.
“Some of our citizens have to have drinking water supplied to them for weeks at a time,” after an earthquake, says Casey Camp-Horinek, a Ponca Tribal Council member, according to a press release from State Rep. Richard Morrissette, a critique of the state’s response to earthquakes in the past few years.
“Their water is extremely salinized and or frothy,” added Camp-Horinek. She said gallon containers of water were recently provided for a five-day stretch after a pipe broke in the community of White Eagle, home to 175 tribal families and more than two dozen tribal programs. The Ponca Tribal Headquarters are also located there.
Camp-Horinek said the White eagle water line break came after a 4.3 magnitude quake in Medford, 20 miles away from the headquarters.
“As a result of the contamination of the wells in our extended community, we have had to rely on water from Ponca City, which costs the tribe approximately $100,000 per year,” said the councilwoman.