All three stories involve the possible contamination of our groundwater and, in case of a man-made accident, contamination of our soil.
STORY # ONE: An Oklahoma Corporation Commission administrative law judge granted the application of I-MAC Petroleum Services, Inc., of Muskogee to drill a saltwater injection well in or near the Vian southern city limits. The rate of 40,000 barrels injection per day (1,680,000 gallons) is allowed under the permit.
The article by Courtney Coble, Your Times writer, said Vian now has until Dec. 11 — tomorrow — to file an appeal.
The judge quoted Oklahoma law and all that, but it appears to me that she ruled on the basis of the applicant’s superior knowledge of courtroom gymnastics than on the basis of history and common sense.
STORY # TWO: This drilling waste problem is not Sequoyah County’s alone. LeFlore and Haskell Counties are involved, too. Sallisaw resident and rancher Doy Wilkins is now fighting the establishment of a “land farm” adjoining his Keota area ranch land to the east. Land farms differ from injection wells in that the permittee is allowed to spread the waste fluid on the land surface over a period of time. Wilkins’ land lies downhill from the proposed land farm, and any accidental runoff fluid would contaminate his pond water, which is the sole source of drinking water for his cow/calf ranching livelihood.
Over 20 landowners, citizens and business owners met Wednesday of last week on the site of the proposed operation to hear officers from the Corporation Commission and an attorney for the applicants, Amie Remer wrote in Your TIMES Sunday issue.
Wilkins’ land is bisected by the “blue line” (Watershed boundary) for the McClellan-Kerr Waterway, a distance of about 1,200 feet, Wilkins told me. Representatives from the Corps of Engineers were present, but no one from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was. Accidental runoff coming across Wilkins’ land would empty into the Arkansas River navigable waters and the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge. How do you measure damage to these? Look at the waters of Lake Tenkiller and the lower Illinois River.
When your neighbor’s hogs get into your cornfield, it is too late to build a fence.
STORY # 3: How soon we forget! On page A8 of Your TIMES Sunday edition was printed “This week in county history.” The lead was a synopsis about a Dec. 2, 1984, article relative to the effort by the Kerr-McGee Sequoyah Facility at Gore to inject liquid waste material into a well near the plant. Between 2,000 and 3,000 signatures of area residents were collected, all objecting to the plan.
Somehow or another, the plan went forward, and officials shot an undetermined amount of “raffinate” into the Arbuckle Limestone formation at about the same depth as the Vian well would do.
Surprise, surprise! The raffinate found its way to a couple of geologic fault lines in the area and — Bingo — water wells around the Carlile area were found to be contaminated. The company paid damages to “several” residents in the plant area.
History has proved that it is not nice to fool with Mother Nature. The accident at Sequoyah Fuels proved that, so what makes us think the current crop of plans will be any different.
Two weeks ago, de Queen and I were sitting at the intersection of U.S. 64 and I-40 east of town. We were waiting to get eastbound on the interstate.
In a blink almost, I counted 11 drilling fluid vacuum trucks, coming and going from the drilling areas of north central Arkansas, to be disposed of in eastern Oklahoma. What does our state get out of this, besides a few dollars in ad valorem taxes? What do our people get, except the possibility of big problems down the road.
The disposal companies must furnish a $10,000 bond — for each 40 acres they contaminate. And that is removed a few years after they discontinue their operations. Good deal? For them, yes, but not for Oklahoma and our citizens.
