On Tuesday, just days after a magnitude 5.6 earthquake hit near Pawnee, Oklahoma, federal regulators shut down 17 wastewater disposal wells in northeastern Oklahoma's Osage Nation.
The Saturday quake matched Oklahoma's strongest temblor on record, The Associated Press reports, and one man was injured when part of a fireplace fell on him. Some buildings on the Stillwater campus of Oklahoma State University and 11 homes also sustained damages, officials said. Scientists have linked an increase in quakes magnitude 3.0 or greater to the injection of saltwater, a byproduct of oil and gas production, into deep disposal wells. The 17 wells are on tribal land, which state regulators do not have jurisdiction over, and are located in a 211-square-mile area within Osage County. "We have no data whatsoever on oil and gas activity in Osage County," Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Matt Skinner told AP. "We don't know how many [wells]. We don't know how deep. We know nothing about them."
Since 2013, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission has asked wastewater well owners to reduce disposal volumes and has ordered the closure of 37 wells in a 514-square-mile area around the epicenter of Saturday's quake. On Tuesday, two more quakes hit northwestern Oklahoma, with magnitudes of 4.1 and 3.6.
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