14 families file suit over earthquakes

They say firms’ wells caused temblors

CONWAY - Fourteen families filed a lawsuit Tuesday over a series of earthquakes that struck parts of Faulkner County and prompted the state in 2011 to ban four natural-gas drilling disposal wells in a large area mostly north of Conway.

The families sued Chesapeake Operating Inc. and BHP Billiton Petroleum (Fayetteville) LLC in Faulkner County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit contends the companies’ disposal wells, which get rid of drilling fluids and wastewater by pushing the liquids back into the earth, “caused thousands of earthquakes in mini-clusters and swarms in central Arkansas in 2010 and 2011.”

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, requires millions of gallons of water and chemicals to be injected into a gas well to break up shale and free the gas.

The 2010-11 quakes damaged the plaintiffs’ homes, caused the houses’ market values to decline and caused emotional stress, according to the lawsuit.

All of the plaintiffs live in Greenbrier, except for one man who lives in Pulaski County and owns a home in Perryville.

“From about July 2010 through August 2011, well over [1,000] quakes of a minimum magnitude of 1.0 have occurred in the area,” according to the lawsuit. “Two earthquakes registered a magnitude of 4.0 and 4.7. Over 30 earthquakes registered a magnitude of 3.0 or above.”

In July 2011, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission voted to ban the four wells in a 1,150-square-mile area mostly north of Conway because of the earthquakes. Companies owning three of the wells volunteered before the commission hearing to plug the wells. Another fought the action but lost.

The commission, citing a need to protect residents from the tremors, also agreed that no new disposal wells could be drilled in that area.

The Arkansas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners group noted at the time that the decision affected only disposal wells and not drilling wells.

An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article in July 2011 reported the Faulkner County quakes caused no injuries and no widespread destruction. It said, however, that cracked walls were reported in several homes and that one quake caused a wall to fall at a mechanic’s shop in Leslie - a Searcy County community almost 50 miles north of Greenbrier.

BHP’s wells were owned by Chesapeake Operating Inc. of Oklahoma City until BHP bought Chesapeake’s Arkansas assets in March 2011, according to the article.

Little Rock lawyer Scott Poynter, whose firm represents the 14 households, said in an email that the firm also has four federal consolidated cases on behalf of 12 households still pending.

BHP did not respond to phone messages and an email seeking comment.

Arkansas, Pages 13 on 02/15/2014

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