60 Minutes - Sunday, September 11, 2016

Episode Date: September 12, 2016

Lesley Stahl takes a look at how the US commemorates the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attack. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Today marks 15 years since the horrendous events of September 11, 2001. Now at Ground Zero in New York City, there's a memorial museum that tells the story of that day

and honors its nearly 3,000 victims. But deciding how to do that wasn't easy. Was absolutely every single tiny little thing an argument? There were lots of issues. Lots of issues. Tonight, we'll take you back to the challenges of creating our nation's 9-11 museum. Not a day goes by I don't think about my son. He was Mike Jr. He was my only son. He's what's known as a gold star parent because his son, Mike Anderson Jr., a Marine, was killed in Iraq.

Now, the father sees it as his duty to help other gold star parents at this remarkable event. The burden that you have is unbearable. At times, yes, sir. But when you come to this event, you take on the unbearable burdens of another hundred families. My son went abroad to help people that he never met. It's human nature to want to help others. It may surprise you to hear that Oklahoma is the most earthquake-prone state in the continental U.S. In 2009, there were

on average two earthquakes per year of magnitude three or greater. Last year, there were 907. What's more astonishing is that nearly all of Oklahoma's earthquakes are man-made. What quake app do you use? I use the one... These Oklahomans say they check their phone apps to track earthquakes around the state. This must be unnerving. It's no way to live.

It's no way to live. I'm Steve Croft. I'm Leslie Stahl. I'm Bill Whitaker. I'm Scott Pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes. Welcome to Play It, a new podcast network featuring radio and TV personalities talking business, sports, tech, entertainment, and more.

Play it at play.it. It's difficult for many of us to believe that it's been 15 years since September 11, 2001, that awful day on which so many innocent lives were taken and our nation was changed forever. Today at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, one of the largest and most ambitious memorial museums in the world, tells the story of that day and honors its victims. Located seven stories underground, the National September 11th Memorial Museum has been visited by more than six million people in the two years it's been open. But deciding how to tell the story of 9-11 presented enormous challenges. How to convey the horror without making it unbearable.

How to memorialize a day most of us wish we could forget. We started reporting on those challenges when the museum was still under construction in 2012. And we witnessed the people in charge having to make some very difficult decisions. Ground Zero above ground has become a place of rebuilding and remembrance. At its center is a serene memorial plaza with two giant cascading pools, twin voids set into the footprints where the towers of the World Trade Center once stood. Each pool is surrounded by names, 2,983 of them,

plus some who didn't even have a name. It's quiet and powerful as people come to touch and feel, and in some cases mourn fathers, sisters, children. But you won't find anything here about what actually happened on 9-11. Nothing about the buildings, the planes, nothing about the terrorists. All that was meant to be the job of the museum and its director, Alice Greenwald. We occupy literally the space below the Memorial Plaza. So we're walking on the roof of the museum.

We met Greenwall when the museum was still being built underneath that plaza, and she took us to see what was down below. Just watch your step, Leslie. It is a construction site. But at this construction site, the issues went far beyond where to put the walls. Virtually every decision here was fraught with meaning

as you descend past two 50-ton beams recovered from the wreckage into a space. Welcome to Foundation Hall. That takes your breath away. It's haunting and a little chilling knowing you're in the belly of ground zero in the place where so many innocent people lost their lives. So here we are. We're right where the buildings collapsed. We're in it. Most museums are buildings that house artifacts. We're a museum in an artifact.

Where we are is almost sacred. I think you become super conscious of where you're standing, and that's a powerful thing. It's a very powerful thing. It's a very powerful thing. It's the authentic side of us. It is sacred in how it's made. We spoke with four family members who are also members of the museum's board. Paula Grant Berry's husband, David, worked in Tower 2, as did Monica Eichen's husband, Michael. Anthula Katsimatidis' brother John was in Tower One, and Tom Rogere's daughter Jean was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11. The site radiates something for us all

in a very special way. That's where the final resting place of our loved ones is. It has to be there. It has to be there. And you can feel it. This is the remnant of the exterior structure that made up the Twin Towers. One of Greenwall's first challenges in this hallowed space was deciding where the story of 9-11 should begin. We begin with the voices of people from around the world. I was driving to work. Remembering where they were when they heard about the attack. Oh my God, a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. where they were when they heard about the attack. The idea is to acknowledge that most visitors will bring their own memories of 9-11,

which was witnessed within hours by people all across the globe. Greenwald says we are all survivors of 9-11, so it's fitting that visitors would descend to the main exhibits of the museum beside an enormous staircase here encased in wood that served as an escape route. On 9-11, hundreds of people ran to safety down this stair. The so-called survivor staircase was one of several artifacts so big the museum had to be built around them, like this fire engine lowered in through a hatch in the roof to honor first responders,

441 of whom lost their lives, and the famous last column, the final massive remnant of the towers to be removed from the site. So there's no sound. But we found that some of the most powerful things on display here Okay, so that's Flight 11. Takes off from Boston. are not physical artifacts at all. Oh, look, the second plane.

A large projection on the wall shows the morning of 9-11 as it played out in the air. Flight 11 is hijacked. Oh, my God. Meanwhile, Flight 77 leaves. With the simultaneous flight paths of the four planes. And now Flight 93 takes off. Oh.

Impact has already happened in New York. Look at this. And then Flight 93 is hijacked, turns around. Among the agonizing decisions for the museum, should they include the voicemail messages left by passengers aboard those planes and other victims of 9-11 for their loved ones? One advisor told Greenwald to think of these recordings as a form of human remains. Baby, you have to listen to me carefully. I'm on a plane that's in high deck. They decided to include a few recordings with permission from family members

and use them only with a purpose. This one, from flight attendant Cece Lyles to her husband, is a testament to the professionalism of the hijacked crews. There are three guys in hijacked plane. I'm trying to be calm. She is so composed. She's in flight attendant mode. She's in flight attendant mode. And at the very end of the call, she says something like,

I hope I see you again, baby. I hope to be able to see your face again, baby. I love you. Bye. End of message. Oh, my goodness. And, of course, audio was just the beginning of the sensitive questions about what should be exhibited. Let me ask you, what about some of the horrific shots, for example, of people jumping?

This is probably, as far as I'm concerned, the most sensitive question for this museum. We went through a lot of debate internally about, do we show that side of the story on the morning of september 11th joe daniels came out of the subway to the gruesome site of bodies falling from the north tower today he is president of the 9 11 memorial and museum you never want to have to see that someone a hundred stories up a thousand feet in the air having having to make that kind of choice. At the same time, there's a very strong feeling that this was a part of the story, that a group of people from this group, al-Qaeda, put innocent people in a position to have to do that. When you think about what terrorism means, this really says it, absolutely. It's an impossible thing for a human being to do to another human

being, and yet it became possible on 9-11. So for us not to acknowledge that would be to not be true to the story. But how? With video of people falling? Or photographs? And what about the feelings of family members? Greenwald told us she understood that some would never want to see an exhibit on this subject, but many argued strongly that it had to be there. I have to say that we were also, I don't want to say accosted, that's a little strong, but, you know, shaken by the lapels by family members who said, you have to tell the story. Don't whitewash this story. Tell it like it was. The world needs to know. So we ultimately decided that we will include an exhibit, but do it in a way, in an alcove,

where people will be clearly warned. If they don't want to see it or have their family see it, they can easily avoid it. One exhibit they want everyone to see is what Greenwall calls the heart of this museum, a space devoted to honoring the victims' lives, with photographs of each of them lining the walls. Those giant walls out there go all the way up. Every bit of space... Will be covered with faces?

Yes, the impression will be that you are surrounded by nearly 3,000 faces. These are the photographs that now cover those walls. Look at those faces. Look at all those faces. They're ages 2 1⁄2 to 85 from over 90 countries, every sector of the economy, every possible ethnic group. Visitors can search these interactive tables

and call up profiles of each person, with photos and recorded remembrances by family members and friends, like this one by the father of Paul Acquaviva, who died in Tower One. He never had a bad word, literally, to say about anybody. He always looked at the positive. You know, I know, to be honest with you, he didn't get it from me, because I'm very critical at times. To me, that was one of the most important things about Paul.

Some of them are funny, some of them are sweet, and we're not telling you who they are. Their loved ones are telling you who they are. Visitors can also search by birthplace or by company. For example, if I call up Cantor, Cantor Fitzgerald was the company that lost more employees than any other. 658 people who died on 9-11 at Cantor Fitzgerald. From that one company. One of the 658 was John Katsimatidis and Thula's brother. Four of us growing up, George, John, myself, and Michael. We were there the day she brought photos

to contribute to John's profile to the museum's chief curator. Well, that is just so cute. I know. What's it like to go through the photographs and choose? I had an extremely difficult time doing that because, you know, you see him as a child growing up, you know, and then as a best man in all of his best friends' weddings because you know you see him as a child growing up you know and then as a best man in all of his best friends weddings you know so it's like well which one do you pick because you just are so sad that the

pictures stop here family members all share the devastation of their loss but the museum discovered that they are hardly a monolithic block. It's the families of nearly 3,000 people. It's, you know, probably 10,000, 12,000 people, all of whom have their own perspectives, their own desires, their own ideas about what kind of museum should be here. It was absolutely every single tiny little thing an argument. There were lots of issues. Lots of issues. lots of issues like whether

to exhibit pictures of the perpetrators and what about osama bin laden did they belong in the 9-11 museum well what was the argument for not showing osama bin laden that on this this actual ground where the atrocity took place this graveyard to to some extent, how could you demean the memory of my loved one by showing the image of the person that murdered him? But other family members took the opposite view, demanding accountability. It was absolutely important to point fingers. You have to tell the story. We had to express who did this to our loved ones.

We don't want any child or adult or student to walk through this museum and not leave knowing who did this to us, which is why we're going to go ahead and show those images. But the museum also wants people to know the stories of heroism and selflessness, the spirit of unity after the attacks. So there are tributes here to recovery workers and volunteers. This museum was built with the

knowledge that when it opened, virtually no one under age 17 would have firsthand memories of September 11, 2001. For almost a quarter of the population, 9-11 would not be a searing memory. It would be, well, something to learn about in a museum. We are worried about the children who don't remember 9-11. And this is the way to tell exactly what happened to future generations so no one ever forgets. Even the painful, maybe most particularly the painful.

Right. We're not talking about a simple little happening, you know. We're talking about a brutal attack on our country, you know, where 3,000 people were innocent and they were murdered that day. Welcome to Play It, a new podcast network featuring radio and TV personalities talking business, sports, tech, entertainment, and more. Play it at play.it. In the wars since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, thousands of Americans have lost sons or daughters. Bereaved parents often become isolated in a familiar world. Friends don't know

what to say about a grief no words can touch. There's no term in the dictionary for a parent who has lost a child, so these mothers and fathers call themselves gold star parents. It's in the tradition of the military service flags that hung in homes during the World Wars. Each blue star on the banner stood for a loved one serving in the military. Gold honored those never coming home. This past April, we first told you about how some of these families are finding solace once a year in San Francisco in the embrace of the only people who can truly understand other Gold Star parents traveling the same endless road. In downtown San Francisco stands an unusual war memorial,

looking as it did in the 1920s when it was a hotel and theater. After World War II, Marines wanted a living memorial, so they transformed this into a club that today honors all that. I look at this building, it's like a ship that sails every February. That once we're inside here, we're safe. We can be ourselves. We don't have to explain to anybody. It's sort of a subliminal language that we all understand. Mary Shea learned the language of loss when her son was killed. It's a language that cannot be translated. And so she and her husband Bill felt they could no longer be understood. You're kind of cast adrift and you're sort of floating nowhere

and you don't know where to go or what to do. And there they were, understanding better than we understood the support that we needed. The gathering the Shays attend every year is organized by women who call themselves the Blue Star Moms of the East Bay Area. Blue Stars, with sons and daughters who served in the military. About 200 of California's Gold Stars attend this honor and remembrance event, which begins with a reception. The next morning, each of the fallen receives a prayer. A grateful nation acknowledges your sacrifice and prays for your peace. Later, Gold Star parents and counselors lead conversations for smaller groups, like single parents and siblings. It's all invitation only, no press.

The only pictures we have are from the Marines Memorial Association. Part of the hotel has become a memorial wall where every lost loved one since 9-11 is remembered. 6,850 stories. Tim Shea was 22. He'd fought two tours in Afghanistan and was in Iraq on his third tour there when his vehicle hit a bomb in August of 2005. A night, a Thursday night about 9-30, there was a knock at the door and we were sort of getting ready to go to bed. And I was in the bedroom and then I heard Mary's voice. Bill, come here right now. Come here. Come here. Come here.

And I went out there and as soon as we saw them, we knew what what we were facing saw who saw the soldiers the there's a chaplain there was a and then two other was it two other soldiers who were there to tell us Tim grew up in Northern California dad a lawyer mama teacher how often do you come? Well, I come most every day and just have a little chat with Tim. Eleven years ago, at Tim's funeral, Mary noticed women she had never seen before. Where did these people come from and why are they here? Why do they care? The strangers were Blue Star moms, including Nancy Totman. How many of these funerals have you been to? Forty-two funerals.

And each one is difficult. I can think of a couple of parents right offhand. Deb Saunders understood their isolation. You can express your sympathy, but you cannot empathize with someone unless you're walking in their shoes. And that's what I knew we had to do, was somehow gather these folks together, that they were better equipped in their journey to help one another. To gather the gold stars, Deb Saunders reached out to a tough old leatherneck, retired Marine Major General Mike Myatt, the

president and CEO of the Marines Memorial Association. Deb Saunders, she was a Blue Star mom. She came to me one day and she said, I'm worried about the Gold Star moms. We need to provide some kind of comfort for them. I knew General Myatt had the resources to help us do it, but I also knew he had the heart, and that's exactly what this took. Heart led Myatt to order the wall, where you find Senior Airman Jonathan Vega-Yelner. He had volunteered after his single mom discovered that he was ditching class in college. And I said, Jonathan, I'm going to give you two options because you fooled mommy. You have a choice, Navy or Air Force. Pick one. Yolanda Vega thought those were the safer options.

He came over and he hugged me and walked away. And as he's walking straight toward the recruiter, he just went like this. He never looked back. The Air Force gave him maturity and purpose. He served in Iraq, then Afghanistan, and there, safe on base, he volunteered for an Army patrol. There was a bomb. He was 24. I was told that he was killed instantly. Thank you, God. And... Yeah. My baby. Yolanda barricaded herself behind close friends and family.

Blue Star Moms sought her out, and she was amazed. Being a Blue Star mother, coming over to a Gold Star mother and hugging, we're their worst nightmare. And yet, they are so willing to be part of our lives and ensuring our well-being. I couldn't have done it without them. Your eyes light up when you talk about them. And I'm trying to understand what it was that you found so uplifting, redeeming about that experience. I knew that my son would always be remembered, and that's one of the biggest fears

Gold Star families have, that our children will be forgotten. That's not going to happen. The children, as parents will always call them, are celebrated at tribute tables. Their child lives again in every new introduction. Because when Tim was a senior, we asked a few families to assemble for us their tabletop biographies. This is a picture when she was little. Yes. Meet Alicia Good, daughter of Claire and Paul, a senior airman armed with what had to be the biggest smile in the Air Force. As you're with more than 100 other tables at the event, people come by. What does it do for you?

It gives us a sense that she didn't lose her life for nothing. In 2006, Alicia Good was on counterterrorism duty near the Horn of Africa when her helicopter collided with another. She was 23. Her daughter, Tabitha, was 2. Tabitha just recently went through her mom's wardrobe. First thing she did was put on her uniform and just looked just like her mom.

It was cute. She realizes that her mom's special and that she won't be forgotten. Not a day goes by I don't think about my son. He was Mike Jr. He was my only son. He was my firstborn. Mike Anderson Sr. has been coming to the event all 11 years. When you see that new family come through the door at the next meeting, what do you tell them? Tell them that we love them, we welcome them. Again, we're walking the same dark valley. I know how you feel. It does get a

little better over time. People talk about closure. There's never real closure, at least not in my mind. But there are steps forward to ease the pain, to help with that closure. What are those, the steps to ease the pain? Faith, for me. Going abroad, 2006, going to Iraq myself to see some of the same faces, be in the region, breathe some of the same air that my son unselfishly fought and died for. You went to Iraq as a civilian.

It was a need for me. It was more than just a want. Mike Anderson, Jr. joined the Marines the minute he got out of high school. In 2004, 11 days before Christmas, he was shot, retaking the city of Fallujah. The burden that you have is unbearable. At times, yes, sir. But when you come to this event, you take on the unbearable burdens

of another hundred families. My son went abroad to help people that he'd never met, that would probably never ever see again. It's just the, in some ways it's human nature to want to help others. And people ask me, what do you say to the Gold Star parents? I say, well, you don't have to say anything to them. Just ask them, tell me about your son or your daughter. Man, they'll just talk. They'll just tell you all they can about the son or daughter.

It's really something. I wish I had known this as a young officer, because I went to Vietnam, and I had people killed out of my platoon. And I was going to go visit each family. And the very last one was in Kansas. I was visiting them, and I went to the house, and the father said, come on in. And the mother, she had on her apron, she said, I just fixed dinner. Would you have dinner with us? I said, no, I'm in a hurry, but I want to tell you about your son and I told him how he was killed and everything they really are appreciated then won't you stay for dinner I did I believe or not I realized now they

wanted to tell me about their son and I wasn't mature enough to know it. That's why they wanted you to stay. Yeah. And now I... Now I know it. For General Myatt, there is redemption now in making a home for the memories. I remember one time visiting my son's gravesite and thinking about how every day they would face the day and realize that this is dangerous.

And they did it anyway. I have a duty to do and this duty is dangerous and I'm going to do it. Tim's death transferred that duty to you. Right. The duty to you. Right. The duty to live your lives and to help other people in the same situation that you're in. I think that's right. I think that's right. And that that's the best way to honor him. Once a year, Gold Star families are safe in the embrace of their peers, strangers who share an intimate truth.

A life is lost, but love does not end. Welcome to Play It, a new podcast network featuring radio and TV personalities talking business, sports, tech, entertainment, and more. Play it at play.it. Oklahomans are accustomed to searching the skies for signs of tornadoes. Today, they're just as wary of the hazards coming from the ground beneath their feet. Tornado Alley is now Earthquake Alley. As we first reported in May, Oklahoma is the most earthquake-prone state

in the continental U.S. What's more astonishing is that nearly all of Oklahoma's earthquakes are man-made. They're being triggered by the biggest and most important industry in the state, oil and gas production. But it's not from fracking, which is what most people think. Before 2009, there were, on average, two earthquakes a year in Oklahoma that were magnitude three or greater. Last year, there were 907. That's right, 907. The vast majority of earthquakes are small, causing little or no damage. But what they lack in punch, they make up in sheer volume. This tally from the U.S. Geological Survey shows the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma

has increased every year since 2009, with more than 2,000 magnitude 3 and above. That means more of the bigger ones, like this 4.3 magnitude quake last December in Edmond, Oklahoma. I woke up scared to death, praying that the house wouldn't fall down. I couldn't believe that the windows didn't shatter. Melinda Olbert and Kathy Matthews are neighbors in Edmond. What quake app do you use? I use the one... They say they check their phone apps to track earthquakes around the state all day long.

Look at that. Cherokee, Enid, Fairview, Medford, Stillwater. All in one day. All in one 24-hour period. This must be unnerving. It's no way to live. It's no way to live. Cornell University seismologist Katie Karanin was teaching in Oklahoma when the increase in quakes began.

She says the situation is unprecedented. What's going on here in Oklahoma has never been seen before? Just the number of earthquakes is astounding, but how fast it grew is perhaps even more astounding. Karen and her student, Catherine Lambert, have set up equipment to detect extremely small quakes in an area where there haven't been many, hoping the small quakes might provide warnings of larger ones. KATHERINE LAMBERT, And so, so far, we have only looked at data from four days of recording. And so we see small earthquakes in the area. JOHN TURNER, Even over four days? KATHERINE LAMBERT, Even over four days, we actually see many dozens of earthquakes. JOHN T we see small earthquakes in the area. Even over four days? Even over four days

we actually see many dozens of earthquakes. Many dozens? That's right. Karenin was among the first scientists to link the earthquakes to oil and gas production. These are man-made earthquakes. Most people feel that the majority of these are linked to this water being disposed. The water that's causing the earthquakes is not from fracking, which is water and chemicals pumped underground to free up oil and gas. This is naturally occurring water that's been trapped below ground with the petroleum for millions of years. This is the oil being pumped out.

Oil, gas, and water. Gary LaRue is president of Petro Warrior, a small independent oil company that operates 14 wells in Oklahoma. What happens in this cylinder is what happens on a grand scale at wells across the region. The oil, gas, and water naturally separate. So the bubbles... This will be the salt water here. This is gas up here.

That's the gas. Here's the oil. Look at that, the oil. Like every other operator in the region, big and small, LaRue's oil wells produce more water than petroleum. The gas and oil are collected in tanks for sale, but the water is too briny to be recycled or used. It's considered waste.

All of this is saltwater. So it has to go back in the ground. We have to get rid of it. Getting rid of the water means sending it down a disposal well that's drilled deep below the freshwater aquifers to prevent their contamination and the zone where it came from. This is it? This is it. This is what all the talk's about? Just a well on the ground. LaRue's disposal well is one of more than 3,000 in Oklahoma. The state created a website to explain the earthquakes. This map shows disposal wells as blue dots. The orange dots are earthquakes. When the price of oil went over $100 a barrel in 2008, oil and gas production increased dramatically.

So did the amount of wastewater and earthquakes. What's causing these earthquakes? What we've learned in Oklahoma is that the earthquakes that are occurring in enormous numbers are the result of wastewater injection. Mark Zoback is professor of geophysics at Stanford University. Zoback says there are two factors behind the earthquakes. One is the large volumes of water being disposed, and the other is where it all goes, deep down into a layer of earth called the Arbuckle.

What makes this such a good place to dispose of all that water? Well, it's very thick, it's porous, it's permeable, so it can accommodate very large injection rates. The only problem with the Arbuckle is that it sits directly on top of the crystalline basement, a rock layer riddled with earthquake faults. So this water is seeping into the faults? So this water is seeping into the faults. The water pressure is seeping into the faults, and the fault is clamped shut,

and the water pressure sort of pushes the two sides of the fault apart and allows the slippage to occur today when it might not occur for thousands of years into the future. Earthquakes are now a daily occurrence in Oklahoma, but it was three quakes in November 2011 near the town of Prigg that caught everyone's attention. One was magnitude 5.6, the largest in Oklahoma's history. Having an earthquake right now, our light's shaking quite a bit here. It toppled a spire at St. Gregory's University and severely damaged 14 houses, including the one where John and Jerry Loveland live with their two children.

Our bed was shaking, and all you could hear was glass. You know, earthquake insurance is something that you don't ever think you're gonna have to have. Like most Oklahomans, the Lovelands didn't have earthquake insurance and have been doing their own repairs to save money. More than four years after the quake, Jerry Loveland often resorts to simply hiding the damage.

Doesn't that concern you that you've got to crack like this? I'm afraid that if we went in and fixed these and then there was another earthquake, even a little, it's going to crack it all and then you've done all that work for no reason. I'm not sure covering it is fixing. It's not fixing it, but that's our only choice. It's not like we have the money to bulldoze the house down and start over. That'd be great, but it's not going to happen. We have a mortgage. We live on one income, and I realize that that's

our choice, but our choice is great when somebody else didn't screw our house up. So, and that's proven fact that somebody did it. It's not a natural disaster. Oil and gas is Oklahoma's largest industry. In recent years, companies like Sandridge, Chesapeake, New Dominion, and Devon Energy have employed nearly one of six workers in Oklahoma. All the companies declined to provide someone to speak to us. For years, Governor Mary Fallin was skeptical the quakes were connected to oil and gas production. But as

the number of quakes skyrocketed, she created an advisory council in 2014 to study the situation. Last summer, Fallin conceded a connection. MARY FALLIN, U.S. Secretary of State for Energy and Energy, I think we all know now that there is a direct correlation between the increase of earthquakes that we've seen in Oklahoma with disposal wells. Nonetheless, last year, the state cut the budget of the agencies investigating the quakes and regulating the oil and gas industry. Kim Hatfield of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association sits on the governor's council. He did agree to an interview and insists the science is inconclusive.

You have to understand, injection into the Arbuckle is not something that started in 2009, 2008, or even 2000. This is something that's been going on for 60, 70 years, and we've had a sudden change. And the question is, what changed? The amount of wastewater injected into disposal wells last year is triple what it was in 2009, adding up to more than 200 billion gallons of water in seven years. The thing that's different is the amount of water that the oil industry is pumping into the Arbuckle formation. That's what's different. And along with that difference comes these earthquakes. That's not the trigger? The injection of water is a factor, but it is not possibly the only factor.

We don't know. So what more needs to be done? We need to understand this issue. It's not as simple as saying, well, let's just stop injecting water. The energy industry is very important to the state. If it's your house that's shaking, there is no way that we're moving fast enough. Mike Teague is Oklahoma's Secretary of Energy and Environment. He's got the tough job of protecting Oklahoma's anxious citizens without damaging its most important industry.

I keep track of all earthquakes above a 3.0 in the state. And 2012, we had three dozen in the entire year. 2013, we had 109. Next year, we had 585. Last year, we had 907. That's an alarming increase. Absolutely. So what have you concluded is the cause? Well, the focus right now is disposal wells. How do you balance out the economic benefit of the gas and oil industry and the public safety? I don't think it's a balance. I think public safety has to take precedence. Mark Zoback from Stanford has been working with Mike Teague and the State Earthquake Council for more than a year. Lowering the total amount of saltwater injection into the Arbuckle

is the only way that these earthquakes are going to start to subside. Do they have time? There's nothing we know that says larger earthquakes are imminent, but everything we know says that the earthquakes are going to be continuing, and there is a probability of larger earthquakes in the future if they do nothing. This winter, the state called for widespread voluntary reductions in wastewater disposal by as much as 45 percent in earthquake zones. More than 600 wells are covered by the cutbacks. Last year, when neighboring Kansas had similar seismic activity, it reduced oil wastewater disposal and saw a 60% drop in quakes from the year before. But considering the huge volume of water already pumped underground in Oklahoma,

it's too early to know whether the cuts here will succeed. Nowhere is the need for action more urgent than Cushing, Oklahoma. Cushing is home to the nation's largest crude oil storage and pipeline facilities, which the Department of Homeland Security calls critical infrastructure. The complex was rocked by a series of earthquakes last fall. Now, the state has asked you to stop putting so much water down. They did a voluntary action. We're six miles away from Cushing over there.

Independent oil man Gary LaRue says cutting back on the disposal of water also means cutting back on the production of oil and gas. With the recent drop in oil prices, the cutbacks, he says, will hurt. $30 a barrel if we have to cut our production in half because of restrictions they put on us, we're done. You're out of business. Yeah, we won't be drilling wells, we won't be employing local people to do our service work,

and we're done. It will drive us out. Since May, LaRue has abandoned eight of his 14 wells to comply with the cutbacks. You know that it's going to hurt the companies, it's going to hurt your friends, it's going to hurt your neighbors, but you cannot compromise when it comes to public safety. We may be talking about trucking at 30 miles away.

I think that could be done. I won't be fear-mongered into thinking that you can't do anything. Because in my heart of hearts, I believe you can, and I believe you should, and I believe you haven't, and now you're paying the price. We're paying the price. Oklahoma has further reduced wastewater disposal since our story first aired in May, and the overall number of earthquakes has been declining. but a 5.8 magnitude quake struck last weekend, the largest in Oklahoma's history. The state immediately ordered 37 more disposal wells to shut down.

Bill Whitaker has covered earthquakes around the world, but Oklahoma's are a different story. Go to 60minutesovertime.com. I'm Scott Pelley. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.