Residents in a region of Oklahoma believe pollution from long-defunct oil wells are contaminating the water and causing health problems
NEED TO KNOW
- An Oklahoma family claim their well water was contaminated by old nearby oil wells
- Tammy and Chris Boarman told ProPublica that their case was closed by the state without resolution
- Only after a lawmaker stepped in were they able to get connected to county water lines
Tammy and Chris Boarman struggled with mouth sores — and he suffered a heart attack — after they moved into their dream home in Highpointe Estates, a neighborhood in Oklahoma’s Logan County.
The couple took up residence of the white farmhouse in the summer of 2022 — but shortly after moving in, they noticed their water, which came from a privately drilled well — had a salty taste, per a report in ProPublica.Their plants died, their ice maker produced oily salt deposits, the metal around their faucet became corroded, and the couple developed sores in their mouths.
The area they lived in was near Deer Creek, where the state saw oil fields in the past. However, according to a 2024 Association of Central Oklahoma Governments report, “Most of the wells drilled in the 1940’s and 1950’s were plugged in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The usual method for plugging was to fill the hole with drilling mud and seal it with five sacks of cement. This is wholly inadequate by today’s standards, but was acceptable in the 1960’s. The sites reviewed so far have indications that the quality of the groundwater may be compromised.”
The Boarmans discovered that there were 26 defunct wells, more than half improperly plugged, within a half mile of their home, after the Oklahoma Corporation Commission looked into their water, per ProPublica. Test results reviewed by the outlet found levels of salt too high for agriculture, and chloride levels that were ten times what the Environmental Protection Agency recommended…