An article in Sunday’s Times & Free Press omitted an important detail concerning recent Oklahoma Corporation Commission actions on saltwater disposal permitting in the wake of the ongoing produced water purge near Omega, spokesperson Matt Skinner said.

The current OCC stoppage of new disposal permitting within an 11,000 square-mile area applies to disposal into the Permian formation only, which Skinner said is the focus of the commission’s investigation into the source of the saltwater percolating up in a fi eld just west of the Kingfi sher-Blaine County line.

“For now, the OCC has stopped permitting new disposal into the Permian within an 11,000 square-mile area,” Skinner said. “New disposal into other formations is being allowed.”

A statewide policy also has been adopted restricting any new disposal wells injecting into the Pennsylvanian geologic subsystem to 10,000 barrels per day.

New commercial disposal wells wishing to inject an amount between 5,000 barrels per day and the 10,000-barrel limit will have to go to an OCC administrative hearing for approval.

After Sunday’s article, a reader contacted the Times & Free Press to ask why a new well under construction at U.S. 81 and Duffy Road would be allowed under the new permit restrictions.

Owned by Overfl ow Energy LLC of Booker, Texas, the disposal well was originally permitted in November 2017 at a volume of 19,500 barrels per day.

Skinner said the company was granted an extension of the original permit when the well was not constructed within the required 18 months, but added that the well is not affected by the new restrictions because it will inject into the Wolfcampian/ Virgilian geologic zone and not the Permian.

“If the issue is over whether we are allowing disposal in the area – the answer is ‘yes,’ with the exception of any new wells disposing into the Permian formation,” he said.

The saltwater purge, so named because the water is coming up from underground as opposed to an above ground spill, was reported by landowners northwest of Omega, just west of the Blaine County line, after they noticed trees dying along the opposite roadside and then discovered a soft spot in their field during wheat harvest.

The purge is located about 50 yards south of the intersection of NS Road 2690 and EW 800.