Environmentalists' Suit Says A Former Kansas Regulator Retaliated Against Their Protests

Cindy Hoedel and Scott Yeargain, who live in or near the Kansas Flint Hills, began looking into oil and gas operations near their homes as early as 2016.

The two, separately, worried about earthquakes and water quality issues that new wastewater injection wells would create.

Hoedel documented a few dozen instances where injection well permit applications didn’t follow Kansas Corporation Commission guidelines. That led to a KCC report identifying more than 1,000 similar cases.
In their efforts to challenge new permits, Hoedel and Yeargain helped other interested landowners understand the process.

Then-KCC deputy attorney Dustin Kirk filed a complaint with the Kansas Attorney General’s office in June 2018 accusing Hoedel and Yeargain of acting as attorneys without a license.

“It seems very obvious that it was an attempt to silence me and make me go away,” said Hoedel, a former Kansas City Star journalist.