With the lawsuit, environmental groups hope to push the EPA to adopt strict national standards for frack water storage and disposal – starting with firm limits on wastewater injection wells.

US Geological Survey scientists and independent researchers have found a sharp rise in seismic activity in states such as Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas and connected those tremors to high volumes of frack waste in disposal wells.

A single well near Youngstown, Ohio was linked to 77 earthquakes. Arkansas, Colorado, and New Mexico have also experienced a spike in earthquakes, because of high-volume wastewater injection wells.

“If the injection of vast gallons of this waste is leading to increased danger of earthquakes, that is certainly reasonable for the EPA to step in and try and do something about it,” Kron said.