Toxic Wastewater From Oil Fields Keeps Pouring Out of the Ground
Oklahoma Regulators Failed to Stop It. Salt water laced with cancer-causing chemicals, a byproduct of oil and gas drilling, is spewing from old wells.
Experts warn of a pollution crisis spreading underground and threatening Oklahoma’s drinking water.
In January 2020, Danny Ray started a complicated job with the Oklahoma agency that regulates oil and gas. The petroleum engineer who’d spent more than 40 years in the oil fields had been hired to help address a spreading problem, one that state regulators did not fully understand.
The year prior, toxic water had poured out of the ground — thousands of gallons per day — for months near the small town of Kingfisher, spreading across acres of farmland, killing crops and trees.
Author's summary: Toxic wastewater from oil fields threatens Oklahoma's drinking water.