Ranchers reported abandoned oil wells spewing wastewater. A new study blames fracking. [View all]

BY DYLAN BADDOUR, INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS, AND CARLOS NOGUERAS RAMOS, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
AUG. 7, 2024

Fracking wastewater, injected underground for permanent disposal, traveled 12 miles through geological faults before bursting to the surface through a previously plugged West Texas oil well in 2022, according to a new study from Southern Methodist University.

It’s the first study to draw specific links between wastewater injection and recent blowouts in the Permian Basin, the nation’s top producing oil field, where old oil wells have lately begun to spray salty water.

It raises concerns about the possibility of widespread groundwater contamination in West Texas and increases the urgency for oil producers to find alternative outlets for the millions of gallons of toxic wastewater that come from Permian Basin oil wells every day.

“We established a significant link between wastewater injection and oil well blowouts in the Permian Basin,” wrote the authors of the study, funded in part by NASA and published last month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The finding suggests "a potential for more blowouts in the near future,” it said.

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I see you standin' in the sun like an iron dinosaur
Got your tired head restin' on a west Texas floor
We were really something son back in our time
Yeah we broke a lot of hearts and we made a lot of dimes

Pump jack pump jack, pump a little more
'Cause daddy's cut it thin at the general store
Gentleman's dime don't float that long
Hey, pump jack pump before my good name's gone

You know I lost my baby to a wildcat dream
I was fueled by the crude and the gasoline
It's hard to settle down with a roustabout
That oil burns hot till the oil burns out

Pump Jack Toby Keith

Yeah! Drill baby drill! It don’t matter if we poison our groundwater. Stupid asses.