The Oklahoma Corporation Commission said it needs more money in next year’s budget.
"I will not apologize that we are requesting additional funding, because we have been given additional responsibilities year after year after year," Commissioner Dana Murphy told state senators Wednesday.
Despite ongoing problems with earthquakes caused by the injection of fracking wastewater, Murphy said seismicity is down 31 percent since 2014.
"So, I think it's very important that we continue to work on that. We've only had one-time funding for this all along to run this department," Murphy said. "We're making a request of almost $600,000 for that. This will be really significant for us to stay on top of, given development."
The corporation commission took a number of actions over the past two years to deal with the drastic uptick in earthquakes. Most of those actions were reducing volumes at or shutting down wastewater injection wells.
The corporation commission also has IT needs and must do more to deal with heavy trucks damaging roads. The corporation commission’s $56 million budget this fiscal year had just 13 percent coming from the general revenue fund.
Corporation commission officials said an increase in funding doesn't need to come entirely from the general fund. They said an existing weigh station fund, for example, could have some monies diverted to pay for the staff the corporation commission provides for those.
