A new study has found that a saltwater disposal well used for natural gas drilling operations may be to blame for a series of small earthquakes near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The study by researchers from the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University found a "plausible" link between a disposal well near the airport and the quakes that occurred in Grand Prairie and Irving between Oct. 30, 2008, and May 16, 2009.

"Drilling isn't causing earthquakes," said Stump. "But there may be a plausible linkage between the disposal of wastewater and these very small earthquakes in this situation."

Chesapeake maintains that a direct, causal relationship between saltwater disposal wells and seismic activity in the D-FW area has not been scientifically proven," Chesapeake spokesman Brian Murnahan told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

"The injection into the wells began in September 2008 and the earthquakes began in October 2008," said Brian Stump, a SMU seismologist. Stump was one of the authors of the study that was published this week in The Leading Edge, a publication of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

The earthquakes stopped after Chesapeake Energy Corp. shut down the well last summer, he said.