A containment system at the site of the as yet unchecked saltwater purge southwest of Omega is expected to be in place in the next week or so, an Oklahoma Corporation Commission spokesperson said.

The commission issued an emergency order after a hearing in late November allowing the agency to accept funds from the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board to install a system of sump pumps and frac tanks to keep the water contained as it is regularly trucked away.

OCC spokesperson Sarah Terry-Cobo told the Times and Free Press Thursday that Bison Oilfield Services, the same company that has been trucking the water off site as it collects in a lined borrow ditch, will be installing the containment system.

At the late November hearing, the commission found after listening to testimony that “ “the purging of saltwater presents an emergency situation having potentially critical environmental or public safety impact.”

The commission’s emergency order, now certifi ed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, allowed the agency to award a contract for the containment system without going through the normal competitive bidding process.

Bison will first install a fence around where the containment system will be allowed, to allow landowner Donald Schweitzer to put cattle out on the rest of the property, Terry-Cobo said.

“[Cimarron Electric Cooperative] is going to build an electric line out to the containment system in the next week and in the meantime pumps and tanks can be installed,” Terry Cobo said.

The containment system is only intended to mitigate further surface damage while the OCC’s working group, including an engineer, a geophysicist, OCC staffers and oil industry representatives, continues to study the problem.

Saltwater continues to bubble up in the middle of the field located just west of the Blaine County line and has been doing so since at least last May, when landowners first reported the problem.

Several OCC directives to shut in some wells and reduce injection pressure in others have so far not slowed the output.

The Department of Environmental Quality also is working with the OCC to monitor groundwater impact.

“DEQ is charged with protecting public health, as a result, our role in this matter is related to the potential impact to groundwater,” Erin Hatfield, DEQ spokesperson, told the Times & Free Press.

Another Produced Water

Purge

The Times & Free Press learned last week that the OCC and DEQ are involved in mitigating another produced water purge near Geary, which Terry-Cobo confi rmed.

That purge, reported by Liberty Flow Energy at one of its salt water disposal sites, has been traced to a shallow hole in the surface casing, discovered by pumping dye into the wellbore.

Liberty reported Nov. 4 that produced water was coming up in the concrete enclosure that surrounds the wellbore (called the “cellar”), Terry Cobo said.

“That purge appears to be an isolated incident and confined to the well site,” she said. “Liberty is running tests Dec. 18 on the well to determine if they will just plug it or repair the casing.”

Hatfield said that DEQ is running water quality tests on samples from public water supplies within the immediate area of the Omega and Geary purges.

“We are still awaiting those results,” she said Thursday.