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Nation working with EPA after largest earthquake in state history

Much attention has been given to the Osage Nation after an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 became the largest in state history.

Its epicenter, near Pawnee, is only about 20 minutes southwest of Grayhorse.

The Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner (OCC) Matt Skinner erroneously told The Associated Press the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered the shut down of 17 injection wells located in a 211-square-mile area in Osage County. Injection wells, or wastewater disposal wells, have been scientifically linked to the earthquakes.

In a conference call between Dallas-based EPA Region 6 and Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear on Sept. 8, an EPA representative said they called the owners of the wells but no official order was given. Some of the wells were already shut down and an owner of five wells has asked to be exempt from the request and reopen his wells.

Standing Bear said the Nation would be sharing all information needed by the EPA to share with the state for an upcoming public database.

“We are working with Region 6 EPA and BIA, but we’re all relying on the science,” Standing Bear said. “All decisions will be scientifically based.”

The Osage Minerals Council and the Bureau of Indian Affairs do not approve leases for injection wells; the EPA does and has done so since 1984.

The EPA retains the federal regulatory authority for their Class II Underground Injection Control Program through the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. It cannot approve state jurisdiction of the OCC to go into Osage County due to the Osage Nation’s sovereign government status. A specific set of rules for regulating underground injection wells in Osage County has been in place since 1984.

The EPA representative said the Osage Nation, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the EPA have had agreements in one form or the other since the underground injection control program began. The rules also adhere to procedural arrangements they have with the BIA Osage Agency, in terms of handling permits, applications and other functions.

Injection well monitoring

According to Jann Hayman, director of the Nation’s Environmental and Natural Resources department, the tribe’s only function in terms of injection wells is monitoring them. Currently, the EPA has approved approximately 3,600 injection wells within Osage County and she has two full-time employees whose sole job is to monitor them.

“We’re working through our role with the EPA on this situation,” Hayman said in the conference call. “Up to this point we take the charge through EPA and monitor the injection wells and provide those reports to the EPA … we’ll do whatever is needed for the Nation or the EPA, helping the producers out, whatever it may be.”


By

Shannon Shaw Duty


Original Publish Date: 2016-09-08 00:00:00

Author

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Shannon Shaw Duty
Shannon Shaw Dutyhttps://osagenews.org

Title: Editor
Email: sshaw20@gmail.com
Twitter: @dutyshaw
Topic Expertise: Columnist, Culture, Community
Languages spoken: English, Osage (intermediate), Spanish (beginner)

Shannon Shaw Duty, Osage from the Grayhorse District, is the editor of the award-winning Osage News, the official independent media of the Osage Nation. She is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a master’s degree in Legal Studies with an emphasis in Indigenous Peoples Law. She currently sits on the Freedom of Information Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists. She has served as a board member for LION Publishers, as Vice President for the Pawhuska Public Schools Board of Education, on the Board of Directors for the Native American Journalists Association (now Indigenous Journalists Association) and served as a board member and Chairwoman for the Pawhuska Johnson O’Malley Parent Committee. She is a Chips Quinn Scholar, a former instructor for the Freedom Forum’s Native American Journalism Career Conference and the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute. She is a former reporter for The Santa Fe New Mexican. She is a 2012 recipient of the Native American 40 Under 40 from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. In 2014 she helped lead the Osage News to receive NAJA's Elias Boudinot Free Press Award. The Osage News won Best Newspaper from the SPJ-Oklahoma Chapter in their division 2018-2022. Her award-winning work has been published in Indian Country Today, The Washington Post, the Center for Public Integrity, NPR, the Associated Press, Tulsa World and others. She currently resides in Pawhuska, Okla., with her husband and together they share six children, two dogs and two cats.

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