![]() Now, underground pressure is causing the salty water to spew to the surface, bringing with it contaminants such as benzene and xylene, both carcinogens. The Railroad Commission contends that only two of the 40 wells that the groundwater conservation district identified were oil and gas wells under the agency’s jurisdiction, and it plugged those wells.Īccording to an analysis commissioned by the groundwater district, the well was originally drilled into the San Andres formation as an oil test well and then was abandoned. The most infamous of these wells, Sloan Blair #1, has been spewing so much briny water that it’s formed a body of water nicknamed Lake Boehmer in the middle of the West Texas desert. Many of the wells are on remote properties, owned by absentee landowners, environmental advocates say. The small local agency doesn’t have the funds, staff or resources it needs to plug the abandoned wells that are now polluting groundwater in the region, said Ty Edwards, the district’s manager. In Pecos County, the Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District has repeatedly asked the Railroad Commission to add 40 wells to the agency’s statewide list of 8,000 abandoned wells marked for cleanup. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Occasionally, Wight’s cattle drink water that has bubbled up to the surface and die, representing thousands of dollars in losses for his ranch. ![]() Rather than cap the holes, the wildcatters and their oil companies–now long gone–transferred ownership of unproductive wells to the previous owners of Wight’s ranch to be used as water wells, known as P-13 wells.ĭecades later, some of the wells on Wight’s land are leaking contaminated water, hydrogen sulfide and radioactive materials. Many were unsuccessful, but the drilling opened up layers of porous rock, revealing water, and minerals. Scattered across his sprawling 20,000-acre ranch are more than 100 abandoned oil and gas wells left behind by wildcatters who drilled in random locations for decades looking for oil. Wight is no geologist, but over the years, he’s had to familiarize himself with what lies underground. ![]() ![]() Schuyler Wight is a fourth generation rancher who has raised longhorn cattle outside Midland, Texas, for decades. Sign up for Floodlight’s newsletter here. This story is produced by Floodlight, a nonprofit news site that investigates climate issues. ![]()
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