Reporting Highlights
- Stopping Water Air pollution: Oklahoma restricts oil area wastewater injection inside a half-mile of public water wells to guard towards air pollution. Regulators have let corporations do it anyway.
- Ignoring Its Personal Guidelines: The Frontier and ProPublica recognized no less than 114 injection wells in Oklahoma which might be situated inside a half-mile of a public water provide nicely regardless of the state rule.
- Taking up the Oil Trade: Officers in Enid are pushing again towards one of many state’s greatest industries and asking for added protections from oil area wastewater injection.
These highlights had been written by the reporters and editors who labored on this story.
Down a mud highway in northwest Oklahoma, only some hundred yards from the place town of Enid attracts its consuming water, an organization injects the poisonous byproduct of oil manufacturing deep underground.
That shut proximity violates a state rule meant to guard public groundwater provides from oil area wastewater, which could be saltier than the ocean and laden with poisonous metals. Injection operations are banned inside a half-mile of public water wells except regulators maintain a listening to to make sure that such exercise is not going to pollute the water.
However in 2018, and not using a listening to, state regulators accepted this injection nicely, an equipment that applies strain to eliminate wastewater down a metal tube. And within the years since, the nicely, named the Flying Monkey, has repeatedly failed structural integrity checks, signaling a possible leak.
The Frontier and ProPublica mapped each injection nicely within the state to find out how shut they’re to public water wells. We recognized no less than 114 injection wells in communities throughout Oklahoma — together with the Flying Monkey and two others in Enid — which might be situated inside a half-mile of a public water provide nicely. Greater than 300,000 Oklahomans reside in communities that depend on these water wells, in response to our evaluation.
Town of Enid has complained to the state in regards to the risk to its water. In Oklahoma and past, poisonous oil area fluid has unfold underground and threatened municipal provides. Midland, Texas, remains to be cleansing up groundwater polluted by a leaking injection nicely greater than twenty years in the past.
However Enid officers are powerless underneath state regulation to cross their very own guidelines governing these wells. And so they’re interesting to the identical Oklahoma company that had accepted the Flying Monkey to now revoke the allow that enables the nicely to inject wastewater. Town can be asking the state to impose stronger protections towards air pollution from injection, as extra oil and gasoline corporations search permission to drill wells that eliminate their wastewater close by. It’s a uncommon instance of pushback towards one among Oklahoma’s strongest industries.
The Oklahoma Company Fee, which is answerable for guaranteeing that business operations don’t pollute groundwater, has accepted hundreds of orders for waivers or changes to state guidelines lately, in response to the company’s administrative courtroom database. These embody almost 400 orders granting exceptions to injection laws alone since 2022, company data present.
The company has repeatedly declined to punish oil and gasoline corporations for inflicting widespread air pollution, in response to an earlier investigation by ProPublica and The Frontier. The information shops additionally discovered that the company selected to not pursue stronger guidelines for wastewater injection following business opposition. In response to that reporting, the company informed the information shops that the state is dedicated to “doing the precise factor, holding operators accountable, defending Oklahoma and its assets, and offering truthful and balanced regulation.”
Enid’s case might be heard within the company’s administrative regulation courtroom later this yr. Neither metropolis management nor their lawyer agreed to be interviewed earlier than the matter is resolved. The Oklahoma Company Fee declined to remark for this story, citing the continued case, as did the Flying Monkey’s present operator, BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings LLC.
Ben Ezzell, a former Enid metropolis commissioner, stated he hopes the state acknowledges that the neighborhood is asking for “cheap” protections towards catastrophic long-term injury to its water provides.
“It’s finally all one huge aquifer,” he stated. “You’ll be able to’t simply pee in a part of the pool. If any of the aquifer is tainted, the entire aquifer might be tainted.”
Skirting State Legal guidelines
A row of hulking grain elevators sits simply exterior Enid’s primary business district, proof of the prolific native farm financial system that earned town of fifty,000 the nickname “Queen Wheat Metropolis.” However within the coronary heart of downtown, a big artwork deco constructing gestures at one among Enid’s different important, long-standing industries: It was as soon as the workplace for Continental Assets, now the world’s largest personal oil firm.
Though Continental outgrew Enid greater than a decade in the past, pumpjacks pulling up oil nonetheless seesaw up and down close to city. Oil manufacturing inevitably means wastewater. And dozens of injection wells west of Enid blast the business’s byproduct underground in the identical space the place lots of the metropolis’s water wells are situated.
The nation’s bedrock water safety regulation — the Secure Consuming Water Act — singles out oil and gasoline injection of wastewater as a very pressing risk to consuming water. And it requires oil states to draft particular laws to guard public water wells.
Oklahoma, nonetheless, has not at all times adopted its personal guidelines. In 2018, a small firm known as Hinkle Oil & Gasoline utilized for a allow for an injection nicely — the Flying Monkey — lower than a quarter-mile from two of town’s water wells, in response to publicly out there information.
However on its software, the corporate had checked a field testifying that the injection nicely was not inside a half-mile of a public water provide nicely — the space that, underneath state guidelines, ought to have triggered a listening to to guage the Flying Monkey’s air pollution risk. “This was demonstrably false,” Enid’s legal professionals wrote in a September 2025 courtroom submitting.
The fee accepted Hinkle’s software for the nicely and not using a listening to, giving the corporate the inexperienced mild to inject greater than 800,000 gallons of wastewater into the earth every day. Hinkle declined to reply questions in regards to the Flying Monkey. The fee didn’t reply to questions on whether or not it verified the space earlier than approving the allow. Nor did it reply to The Frontier and ProPublica’s provide to indicate company officers our mapping of the 114 injection wells throughout the state which might be situated inside a half-mile of a public water provide nicely.
Later in 2018, Hinkle transferred the nicely to a different small firm, which utilized for a brand new allow to transform the Flying Monkey to a business nicely to eliminate the wastewater produced by different oil corporations, too. By approving the allow, town contends, regulators allowed the corporate to violate one other state rule meant to guard public water wells from business disposal websites. The brand new firm’s software additionally didn’t acknowledge the shut proximity of the general public water provide nicely. The corporate has since filed for chapter.
Each of these permits had been finally signed by Patricia Downey, the supervisor of the company’s underground injection management program, and browse: “determination with out listening to.” Downey didn’t reply to any questions despatched on to her, together with whether or not she knew in regards to the Flying Monkey’s proximity to public water wells.
Within the final 5 years, the state has shut down the Flying Monkey repeatedly — for months at a time — for failing mechanical checks required by the state that consider the nicely’s structural integrity. Failing these checks can point out an issue with the nicely that could be permitting wastewater to flee. The nicely has failed 5 of those checks since 2021, together with one in March attributable to a leak within the nicely’s tubing that the corporate had reported to the company, in response to state data. The company’s report in regards to the March incident doesn’t reference an investigation into whether or not the leak reached close by groundwater. The company sometimes notes when an investigation is performed. It didn’t reply questions on whether or not it investigated the nicely for potential air pollution.
Within the courtroom submitting final fall, Enid’s legal professionals described this sample of violations as “a major compliance pink flag, particularly given the nicely’s rapid proximity to Enid’s public provide nicely.” Town desires the state to terminate the Flying Monkey’s allow. After a interval of inactivity final yr, the nicely started injecting wastewater once more final summer time, solely to be shut down once more this March. State data point out that the Flying Monkey’s operator, BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings, repaired the tubing leak in April, and the nicely’s standing is listed as energetic; the corporate declined to remark.
Neither the corporate’s nor the fee’s courtroom filings embody responses to Enid’s accusations. In June, BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings refiled a allow software for the Flying Monkey, acknowledging the proximity of town’s water provide wells.
Shut by the Flying Monkey, one other wastewater injection nicely — Estill #8 — sits roughly a quarter-mile from three of Enid’s water wells.
In its software, submitted in August 2012, an affiliate of the U.S. Power Improvement Corp. acknowledged the proposed injection nicely’s proximity to town’s water provide however subsequently urged state regulators to approve an emergency order to permit the nicely to start injecting wastewater instantly. Ready for the required listening to, the corporate wrote, would lead to “irreparable monetary hurt” as a result of any delay would deprive it of a approach to eliminate the wastewater generated by its close by oil wells. Usually, oil corporations need their wastewater disposal websites to be as shut as doable to their producing wells to scale back the price of transporting the fluid. The fee accepted the emergency order on a short lived foundation whereas it thought of whether or not to situation a everlasting allow, and the nicely started injecting wastewater in November 2012.
In February of the next yr, the corporate returned to the fee to resume its request to proceed injecting and not using a normal listening to. The fee accepted the second request in March and two weeks later licensed the nicely’s official allow and not using a listening to. The fee didn’t reply questions in regards to the allowing course of for Estill #8.
The nicely has been working ever since, injecting greater than 12 million gallons of wastewater into the earth final yr. (A 3rd injection nicely additionally operates inside 1 / 4 mile of a metropolis water nicely, however that one was permitted within the Nineteen Seventies, earlier than trendy laws had been established.) The state has examined these injection wells each few years and has not recognized issues with both one.
Three Wastewater Injection Wells Are Inside a Half-Mile of an Enid Public Water Effectively
Half-mile radius of public water wells
Wastewater injection nicely
Half-mile radius of public water wells
Wastewater injection nicely
Lucas Waldron/ProPublica
Enid’s Quiet Battle
On this arid a part of Oklahoma, the place floor water is scarce, Enid has develop into a significant supply of consuming water for a dozen smaller, extra rural communities in addition to Vance Air Pressure Base. Even after the latest completion of a 70-mile, $400 million pipeline to convey water from Kaw Lake, Enid will proceed to rely closely on its groundwater wells.
“Within the twenty first century, water goes to be the brand new gold,” Frank Baker, an Enid metropolis commissioner, stated in an interview.
Pushed by rising concern over water shortage and the potential for contamination, town’s effort to guard its water has stretched for 2 years however has obtained scant consideration round city. The problem hasn’t beforehand been coated within the media. The Metropolis Council hasn’t mentioned it in public conferences. And few observe the obscure quasi-judicial system of the Oklahoma Company Fee.
If residents knew how shut injection wells function to their consuming water provide, they might be involved, stated Elizabeth Betchan, a barista at a downtown espresso store. “I’d really feel extra comfy if there was extra of a buffer there,” she stated.
Enid is asking regulators to impose a ban on oil and gasoline wastewater injection inside a half-mile of its water wells, with no risk of exceptions. It additionally desires the state to require extra testing, air pollution monitoring and mechanical security measures for wells inside 1 mile of an Enid water nicely, in response to its software to state regulators.
“I believe a mile might be too shut,” stated Eddie Mack, a retired supervisor of a rural water district who additionally served on Enid’s planning fee.
Air pollution from high-pressure wastewater injection can radiate a lot farther than a mile. Oil corporations have acknowledged that their injection wells can impression each other’s operations that had been 3 miles aside, in response to agreements between corporations on methods to reply in such situations. The Frontier and ProPublica recognized greater than 400 wastewater injection wells throughout Oklahoma which might be inside 1 mile of a public water provide nicely.
Laws for this situation fluctuate extensively amongst oil states. Colorado and Ohio set a minimal buffer of 1,000 toes between injection wells and public water provides. Many states shouldn’t have mounted setbacks, as a substitute counting on belowground geological evaluations to make sure that injected fluid doesn’t contaminate aquifers.
A leak from one injection nicely may cause extreme air pollution that lasts many years. That’s what occurred greater than 20 years in the past in Midland, Texas, which has no mounted buffer requirement between injection wells and public water wells. After the corporate accountable went bankrupt, cleanup fell to town, which has spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} making an attempt to cease the air pollution from spreading, in response to an investigation by Inside Local weather Information.
However Enid’s bid to guard its groundwater faces quite a few obstacles.
5 corporations have formally opposed town’s request for stronger guidelines to guard its groundwater. These embody Flying Monkey proprietor BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings, Estill #8 proprietor U.S. Power Improvement Corp. and two others — D&B Working and Royalty Power Improvement LLC — which have pending purposes for brand new injection wells close to Enid. Neither of the latter two corporations responded to requests for remark.
Matthew Allen, an lawyer representing U.S. Power Improvement Corp., argued in a Could procedural listening to that town’s proposed adjustments would “considerably enhance the regulatory burden” and prices to corporations. He additionally stated that the executive courtroom was the inaccurate venue for town to pursue such a major change. Neither Allen nor different firm representatives responded to requests for remark.
Kaylee Davis-Maddy, Enid’s lawyer, emphasised through the listening to that town was not making an attempt to ascertain a statewide rule. Fairly, she stated, Enid desires the principles to use inside a geographic boundary to guard its freshwater. Davis-Maddy declined to be interviewed.
Enid has to convey its attraction to the state company largely attributable to a 2015 regulation that forbids cities and counties from establishing their very own laws on oil and gasoline operations.
That issues as a result of even when the executive regulation decide sides with Enid, such a choice have to be accepted by the regulatory company’s three elected commissioners. Proper now, two of them are former state legislators who previously have opposed efforts by Oklahoma municipalities to limit oil and gasoline operations.
Earlier than profitable election to the fee in 2024, Brian Bingman served within the state Senate, the place, because the Senate president professional tempore, he was the lead creator of the invoice to ban native governments from regulating the oil and gasoline business. Kim David, one other commissioner, voted for the invoice as a state senator. All three commissioners had been elected with important monetary help from the oil and gasoline business. Neither Bingman nor David responded to requests for remark.
On the time the preemption regulation handed, a number of native governments had been contemplating restrictions on hydraulic fracturing amid a wave of earthquakes attributable to oil and gasoline injection. The laws mandated that any regulation of the business be accepted by the company fee.
The state Supreme Courtroom upheld the regulation in its 2022 determination nullifying a requirement by town of Norman, about 20 miles south of Oklahoma Metropolis, that oil and gasoline corporations keep additional legal responsibility insurance coverage.
“Municipalities not possess a broad police energy to manage oil and gasoline,” the courtroom wrote in its unanimous determination.
