Oklahoma's own rule bans injecting oil and gas wastewater within half a mile of a public water well. Yet a ProPublica investigation found that toxic waste, saltier than the sea and full of heavy metals, is being pumped less than a quarter-mile from Enid's drinking water wells. The Corporation Commission approved those wells without even holding a hearing.
This is not one well. At least 114 injection wells across Oklahoma sit closer to public water than the state's own rule allows, putting the drinking water of more than 300,000 Oklahomans at risk, and the Commission has granted nearly 400 exceptions to its injection rules since 2022. When Enid tried to protect its own water, it hit a wall. A 2015 state law strips cities of the power to regulate oil and gas, so the city's only recourse is to plead with the same Commission that approved the wells.
I am asking you to fix this at the state level. Repeal the 2015 preemption so cities can again protect their own drinking water, and close the loophole that lets the Corporation Commission grant exceptions to the half-mile buffer next to public wells. Oklahoma families should not have to gamble their water on a state agency that waves these wells through. Once an aquifer is poisoned, no amount of money brings it back.
