The Ohio Supreme Court unanimously rejected a lawsuit Wednesday from a fracking waste disposal company seeking millions from the state after its operations caused two earthquakes in Trumbull County, not far from an aging dam.
As a result of the tremors – a comparatively modest 1.7 and 2.1 magnitude – the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in 2014 suspended injections into the company’s two wells. The more problematic silo of the two reaches more than 8,000 feet underground and was built to store the millions of gallons of hazardous wastes of spent fracking brine at high pressure in rock formations deep underfoot.
The quakes and ensuing suspensions set into motion 12 years of litigation that finally ended Wednesday.
American Waste Management Services, the disposal company, said the suspension amounted to an unconstitutional government “taking” of its property. As compensation, it wanted $20.5 million from the state.
But the justices unanimously rejected the idea, emphasising the reasonable interest in public safety from the regulators and foreseeability from company officials of the tendency of injection wells to rattle the earth.
The opinion, authored by Justice Pat DeWine, leans heavily on a confidential memorandum the company circulated among potential investors. The memo is explicit: fracking waste injections can cause earthquakes, which can cause regulatory actions.
“Thus, AWMS anticipated the very occurrence that happened here: a shutdown of its operations because one of its wells caused an earthquake,” Justice DeWine wrote.
Plus, the company opted against underground testing that could have detected the fault line near the drilling site.
AWMS previously argued that because the earthquakes were small and didn’t damage any persons or property, the shutdown was in some ways speculative about a harm that might happen down the line.
In a news release, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said the ruling is a victory for taxpayers, “who don’t have to open their pocketbooks every time the state enforces the law.”
ODNR previously argued that Ohioans have a right to be free from manmade earthquakes powerful enough to be felt.
“The dispute between AWMS and the division isn’t about whether AWMS should be able to cause earthquakes or not – everyone acknowledges that AWMS will cause some earthquakes,” state attorneys wrote. “AWMS just wants to cause bigger earthquakes.”
AMWS and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources didn’t respond to inquiries.