In Oklahoma, state regulators have ordered oil and gas companies to shut down nearly 40 toxic wastewater disposal wells, after a massive 5.6-magnitude earthquake Saturday rocked Oklahoma and sent tremors through six neighboring states. Scientists have warned that the wastewater disposal wells, which inject toxic water used in the fracking process deep into the earth for storage, may be linked to the dramatic rise in earthquakes in Oklahoma in recent years. The earthquake destroyed at least a half-dozen buildings on the Pawnee Nation and another half dozen in the city of Pawnee. This is Pawnee Mayor Brad Sewell.

Mayor Brad Sewell: “Well, we had an earthquake that was just unprecedented in this area. I mean, this was—we’ve had a lot of earthquakes over the last couple of years, and they have been just single tremors, and, you know, boom and it’s gone. And right away, you could tell this was something different. I mean, this was a long, sustained, strong earthquake. Things toppled off of shelves. And, you know, it rattled windows and did all kinds of things.”