By Kailey Garcia
In 2014, (click here) 15 percent of Oklahoma homeowners had earthquake insurance. That seems remarkable for a state that, from 1973 to 2008, had a mere 21 magnitude-3 earthquakes. But it makes sense considering that, since then, the state has become a hotbed of induced seismicity — which is really just a fancy term for man-made earthquakes. In 2016, Oklahoma experienced 500 magnitude-3 earthquakes.
So the state’s residents, forced to adapt to these new, unnatural disasters, began to purchase earthquake insurance.
“There is a higher take-up rate in earthquake insurance given the last few years, [because of] the increased seismicity our state has seen,” John Doak, Oklahoma’s insurance commissioner, told WhoWhatWhy.
The waste products of hydraulic oil fracking, otherwise known as toxic wastewater, cause these earthquakes. The wastewater gets pumped to the surface and injected back into the earth at various depths.
“Wastewater injection can induce small earthquakes to occur, leading to larger ones, in a cascading effect,” said Jacob Walter, the Oklahoma Geological Survey’s lead seismologist. He noted that the area in which the wastewater is injected has no clear correlation to where the earthquake will occur, because of the countless earthquakes triggering each other in unpredictable patterns....
...To make matters worse for the citizens of Oklahoma, insurance companies know how vulnerable unreinforced masonry is....
...The cheapest insurance costs between $30 and $50 annually. However, when it covers unreinforced masonry, it can range from $300 to $400 a year. This spike in price can accumulate over the years into a punishingly large amount of money, especially when earthquake insurance is such a necessity.
In addition, earthquake insurance is typically subject to large deductibles. And, even though they are not the ones who induced the tremors, regular people end up holding the bag because, as of now, the oil companies causing the quakes refuse to pay for any of the costs, insurance or otherwise.
That doesn’t sit well with Oklahomans who are experiencing this new strain on their wallets.
“I think the oil and gas industry should pay for the damage they caused,” Sharon Wilson, a senior organizer for Earthworks and a former oil and gas worker, told WhoWhatWhy.“Homes built in Texas and Oklahoma were built to withstand wind, not earthquakes.”...
...The money and power that the oil and natural gas corporations wield — and spend on influencing politicians and hiring the best lawyers — gives rise to a perception that they can continue their operations without being called to account for Oklahoma’s induced earthquakes.
Now the citizens of the Pawnee Nation are using tribal law to push back against having to pay for earthquakes caused by fracking.
On September 3, 2016, a 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Pawnee Nation. It damaged every historical building at the Pawnee headquarters — all made of unreinforced masonry and many over one hundred years old. That includes buildings in the national register of historic places.
“The stone cracked, and plaster walls cracked and ceilings collapsed and those kinds of things,” Andrew Knife Chief, executive director of the Pawnee Nation told WhoWhatWhy. “It shut us down for a little bit, we were closed as a nation for four days, which makes it very difficult for our citizens because we provide services to our tribal members and then we weren’t able to do that and then construction was happening, and it took about a year.”...
