Residents near Enid say the smell of an oilfield waste disposal site made them feel sick. State officials weren’t sure who was in charge of enforcement.
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.
The state is asking the court to cap the application of bird waste, penalize poultry companies for violating the state’s anti-pollution law and order them to pay for cleanup.
Penalties for not reporting or over-using groundwater are scarce. The state had never fined a permit holder for overusing water before last year.
“My observation is that poultry would rather litigate and appeal and delay,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said. “It’s economically beneficial. I wish they would change that.”
On Wednesday, an attorney for the Grand River Dam Authority sent another letter to federal regulators saying that the state agency would turn over flood study records, while calling the request “unreasonable and oblivious” in light of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory bent.
A Grand River Dam Authority’s report found it shouldn’t have to buy out landowners affected by chronic flooding. But the agency won’t hand over records showing how the study was performed.
State lawmakers are trying for a second year to require commercial users to more accurately track water usage. Farmers have opposed previous efforts to create stricter water monitoring.
