Oklahoma regulators let an oil company restart wells linked to toxic wastewater eruptions, despite warnings about unsafe injection pressures and the potential threat to drinking water.
The decision followed agency staff recommendations for formal penalties against the company, according to an investigation by ProPublica and The Frontier.
Here's what to know
The oil company owned 19 of the 22 wastewater injection wells temporarily shut down by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in June 2023.
The shutdown covered wells in the Bayou oil field near Ardmore.
Oklahoma Corporation Commission investigators and consultants from Halff connected the wells to wastewater eruptions in creeks and on surrounding land. The wells inject wastewater underground to help produce more oil.
The company refused the agency's request to reduce injection pressures by 50%, leading staff to seek penalties, ProPublica and The Frontier reported.
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The pressures agency leaders authorized when approving seven of the company's wells to restart in April 2024 exceeded Halff's recommendations. By the end of 2024, the company had permission to restart six additional wells.
ProPublica and The Frontier found no commission records showing a fine against the company or a completed enforcement case against it — even though the company appeared more than 1,000 times in its pollution report and rule-violation database over a decade.
More background
For residents who rely on groundwater for drinking and cooking, concerns go beyond the visible pollution.
Tests near eruption sites found benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, at five times the Environmental Protection Agency's drinking water standard, per ProPublica and The Frontier.
The EPA's 2023 warning identified Bayou wastewater injection as a potential danger to underground drinking water sources.
In a meeting recording the outlets obtained, Carolyn May, director of environmental remediation at environmental engineering firm Halff, explained that excessive injection pressure could fracture underground rock.
"You definitely have overpressurization," she told company officials. "It's allowing that rock to fracture."
Nearby abandoned wells that had not been plugged provided pathways for the wastewater to reach freshwater and the surface.
The company disputed responsibility, arguing that rainfall was bringing pollution from historic drilling back to the surface.
Agency staff rejected that explanation, citing the eruptions' force and volume.
A company executive did not respond to written questions from ProPublica and The Frontier.
What's being done?
The Bayou investigation ended without further action against the company.
Agency leaders never signed the proposed enforcement case seeking fines and revocation of injection permits, both penalties the commission can impose.
Of roughly 750 oil-division enforcement cases filed since 2023, the outlets found that fewer than one-third had resulted in punishment.
Roughly 10 miles to the Bayou's east, regulators ordered temporary injection shutdowns after rancher Mike Faulkner reported saltwater flowing across his land. Faulkner said the eruption stopped after the shutdowns.
The agency also required monitoring wells, a containment pit with a rock dam, and fencing to protect cattle. Still, the company received repeated deadline extensions for the dam and fence.
According to ProPublica and The Frontier, the company agreed to a $700,000 settlement with Utah in 2025 after spilling crude oil and wastewater.
"They're like a spoiled kid," Faulkner told the outlets. "They've just gotten away with it for a long time."
Where can I learn more?
Questions about well oversight and water supplies are surfacing in other states, too. These stories cover a challenge to clean water protections, inactive wells, and a wastewater disposal proposal.
• Amid a Pennsylvania leak probe, a pipeline company is challenging clean-water protections.
• Texas lawmakers questioned regulators as 160,000 inactive wells risk becoming orphaned across the state.
• A Delaware company seeks to dump treated wastewater into Texas' Lake Wichita daily.
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