A bubbling spring of water might not sound like a serious problem.

But it is when the water coming out of the spring is 300,000 parts per million salt.

That is three times the salt sometimes found in fracking water, owners of the property northwest of Omega said.

The landowners, who asked not to be identified, first noticed something was wrong in May when they observed trees starting to die along the roadside.

As they were harvesting wheat they noticed a soft spot in the field and began investigating, locating the water bubbling out of the ground at the rate of about two to four gallons a minute, hydrology tests showed.

The salt spring is located about 50 yards south of the intersection of NS Road 2960 and EW 800 in Blaine County, about one mile west of the Kingfisher-Blaine county line.

Pumping can’t control the flow. A 15-foot hole was drilled and an oil company has been trucking the water away.

Oklahoma Corporation Commission spokesperson Matt Skinner said the agency has yet to identify the source of the saltwater “purge,” a term for liquid pushing up from beneath the ground as opposed to a spill on the surface.

Skinner said Devon Energy operates three saltwater disposal wells that appeared to be the most likely sources in terms of proximity, but when the company voluntarily plugged in all three, “it didn’t seem to have any kind of impact.”

Four other disposal wells are located within a three-to-four-mile radius of the purge and the two companies that operate them also were voluntarily shut-in for a time so that data and pressure readings can be generated, he said.

“We brought in an engineering consultant who is conducting tests on that data and who hopefully will provide us a clearer path to follow,” Skinner said. “The more heads we have looking at this the better.”

Skinner said he didn’t have data in front of him to verify the landowners’ estimate of the salt content but did say that “the water is much ‘hotter’ than you’d expect” from a disposal well.

“The chloride levels are a lot higher,” he said.

Skinner added that, “one way or another,” a solution will be found and action will be taken to resolve the problem.

“We’re not going to allow it to go on indefinitely,” he said. “We’ll see what the next step is based on the numbers.

“It will be sooner rather than later. We’re looking to take action in a matter of days.”