A series of earthquakes in Youngstown, Ohio, potentially related to brine-injection wells, caused the city’s mayor to buy earthquake insurance for his home and initiate a moratorium on injection wells near the city.

There have been 11 earthquakes in Youngstown in the past 10 months, since D&L Energy Inc. began injecting drilling brine, a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing, 9,200 feet underground in December 2010.

As an IFA story last year indicated, fracking is believed to carry a number of insurance risks that agents must be prepared to address with their clients.

After the strongest earthquake, with a magnitude of 4.0, on New Year’s Eve, the state ordered D&L to keep closed four inactive wells within a five-mile radius of the Ohio Works well. Injections will continue at the other 177 wells without interrupting shale-gas development, the Youngstown Vindicator reported.

Mayor Charles P. Sammarone announced a meeting for city officials and officials at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to discuss moratoriums on the injection wells.

Sammarone, a Democrat, wants the city council to support a moratorium of about 30 days on injection wells in the city so the state and experts can investigate if the well is causing the earthquakes, according to the Youngstown Vindicator.

He also supports state Rep. Robert F. Hagan (D-Youngstown), who called for a moratorium on injection-well activity “until we can conclude it’s safe.”

“There’s too many questions that are unanswered,” Sammarone said of the wells in the Youngstown Vindicator. “This particular well is creating problems. People feel unsafe. My whole neighborhood felt [Saturday’s earthquake]. I thought my house was going down. Stuff fell off the shelves, and the whole house shook. I’m going to take out earthquake insurance.”

Terry Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Council, a trade association, told the Youngstown Vindicator that there is a”major” difference between injection wells and fracking, and that there is no evidence connecting the latter to earthquakes.

Republican Gov. John Kasich said the 177 deep-injection wells operated in the state for decades without any problems, according to the local newspaper.

David Betras, an attorney and Mahoning County Democratic Party chairman, said the earthquakes and the likelihood that the injection well caused them could result in a class-action lawsuit, the Youngstown Vindicator reported.