Federal regulators shut down more wastewater disposal wells in response to a record earthquake that hit northern Oklahoma and caused damage in Wichita over the weekend.
Oklahoma officials announced on Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency has shut down 17 wells in Osage County, in the northeastern part of the state.
The wells are located on Osage Nation tribal land, so the state has no jurisdiction over oil and gas-producing facilities there. State regulators already closed 37 wells around the epicenter of a magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck Pawnee Oklahoma on Saturday.
This week, the U.S. Geological Survey recorded five more smaller earthquakes around the Oklahoma-Kansas border, including one just east of Caldwell in Sumner County.
An increase in earthquake activity around the region has been linked to oil and gas disposal wells.
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