Regulators: Industry didn’t cause temblors

Associated Press

A Kansas regulatory agency has determined that the oil and gas industry wasn’t to blame for a recent spate of Wichita earthquakes.

The Kansas Corporation Commission looked at wastewater injection wells located within 6 miles of the epicenters of the 15 earthquakes that rattled Wichita in the past month and found that none had recent volume increase, The Wichita Eagle reports.

The agency also found that no new wells were “recently completed within the area.”

“Based on our investigation, KCC staff does not believe the seismicity in Wichita, Kansas is tied to any oil and gas activities in the area,” Ryan A. Hoffman, the Kansas Corporation Commission director of the conservation division, said Dec. 23 in a news release.

The largest in the series of earthquakes was a 3.7 magnitude Dec. 19, when the Kansas Geological Survey reported five earthquakes. KGS Senior Scientist Rick Miller said the 3.7 magnitude could be the largest in Wichita since 1948.

Miller has said he believes the earthquakes are a natural event on a fault line, letting off built up energy.

- Associated Press