Oklahoma took on an ambitious project to catalog all of the state’s injection wells, which shoot toxic waste generated by oil drilling back into the ground. Despite records showing risk of drinking water pollution, the state chose not to act.
State regulators discovered strong signs of oil pollution, including high levels of salt and toxic metals, in one family’s drinking water. But for two years, they repeatedly delayed basic tests to find the culprit — then closed the case.
The legislation comes after The Frontier and ProPublica found over 150 incidents where oilfield wastewater had gushed from the earth, releasing toxic chemicals — including some that cause cancer — near homes and farms and into drinking water sources.
It took months of records, miles of travel and countless conversations to uncover a statewide problem regulators long downplayed. Your donation helps us continue reporting that holds power to account.
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.
