After a hearing late Friday afternoon, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission issued an emergency order allowing the agency to acquire funds to mitigate the surface impact from a saltwater spring bubbling up in a fi eld southwest of Omega.

The order will allow the commission to accept funds donated by the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board to construct a system to contain the water until the purge can be stopped through other means.

“On behalf of Oklahoma’s oil and natural gas producers and royalty owners, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board (OERB) has offered to provide a monetary grant to contain the area affected by the saltwater purge until the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) can determine the cause,” Dara McBee, OERB’s communication director, said in a written statement.

“This grant is an effort to provide the OCC with the resources they need to address the surface impacts of this issue while they continue to investigate the cause.”

OCC spokesperson Sarah Terry-Cobo said the agency will be seeking up to $200,000 to install a system to pump the saltwater into at least three frac tanks, which will be emptied periodically via tanker truck.

An OCC attorney, representing the Oil and Gas Conservation Division, appeared before the commission Friday afternoon and presented testimony from Shawn Coslett, manager of the pollution abatement department, and Wayne Hendricks, oil and gas fi eld inspector supervisor.

The two men presented images of the as yet unexplained saltwater spring bubbling to the surface in a fi eld owned by brothers Donald and Ronald Schweitzer just west of the Blaine County line.

First noticed by the landowners last May, the saltwater has been flowing unabated since that time, despite a number of OCC actions and directives intended to stop the fl ow.

Terry-Cobo told the Times & Free Press that pressure underneath the field is decreasing, which OCC engineers see as a positive turn of events which engineers hope will eventually slow and stop the purge.

But with no real indication of the source of the saltwater, no one can say with certainty when or if that will happen.

If anything, the flow has sped up, producing nearly 14 gallons per minute, or well over 400 barrels per day early this week.

The commission found in its emergency order that “the purging of saltwater presents an emergency situation having potentially critical environmental or public safety impact.”

By issuing a final emergency order, the corporation commission authorized the agency to enter a memorandum of understanding with the OERB regarding the use of funds and request a certification from Gov. Kevin Stitt that an emergency exists.

An emergency certifi cation will allow the agency to circumvent competitive bidding requirements and enter a contract to construct the containment system.

Terry-Cobo said project specifications are being fi - nalized.

The emergency order signed by all three corporation commissioners also reserves the right to seek reimbursement when and if the party or parties responsible for the purge are identifi ed.

Terry-Cobo said the containment system is only intended to mitigate surface damage and won’t stop the ongoing effort to halt the purge and identify its cause.

A working group comprised of a consulting engineer, a geophysicist, oil industry representatives and OCC staff members continues to study the problem.

Once the flow is stopped, additional work will have to be done to restore the property to its previous condition.

Currently, the water is piped into the open borrow ditch at the edge of the property where it is periodically siphoned off and trucked away by Bison Oilfi eld Services.

That is a problematic solution, at best.

Although OCC crews lined the ditch last week to help prevent saltwater from leaching into the soil, that doesn’t prevent contaminated water from spilling over in heavy rains, which landowners say has happened more than once in the past few months.

Terry-Cobo said once the containment system is built, Bison Oilfi eld Services will continue to truck the saltwater away, where it’s being disposed of in a well outside the area believed to be contributing to the purge.

A total of eight disposal wells, seven commercial and one noncommercial, have been shut in indefi nitely by OCC directive.

Injection pressure has been limited on another 12 wells, located primarily in the Watonga area, to no more than 1,000 pounds per square inch.