TOPEKA — A Kansas House Committee rejected a bill designed to prevent earthquakes triggered by oil and gas production wastewater disposal methods.
The bill was supported by several people who said their homes were damaged by the quakes, while the oil and gas industry strongly opposed it.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the Kansas Geological Survey says most earthquakes experienced in recent years in Kansas were caused by injecting large volumes of wastewater from oil and gas production into disposal wells.
The number of earthquakes in Kansas has increased recently, particularly in the south-central region.
In 2015, regulators limited the amount of water that could be injected in two hard-hit counties to 8,000 barrels a day.
The bill rejected Thursday would have extended that limit to about 430 other injection wells statewide.
