OKLAHOMA CITY - Although Nject Disposal LLC managed a saltwater disposal well in Caddo County “within its authority” granted by state regulators, Nject’s operation of that well caused saltwater to pour out of a previously unknown, poorly plugged, century-old well more than a mile away.
In an interim Oklahoma Corporation Commission order dated Nov. 25, Nject agreed to plug its Pearcy #1 saltwater disposal well and restore the site; to “work with” the commission’s Oil and Gas Conservation Division to plug, “remediate and restore” the site of the saltwater “purge”; and to reimburse the OCC for its costs associated with the saltwater discharges.
The purging well initially was expected to be properly plugged “shortly after Thanksgiving,” Corporation Commission Administrative Law Judge Keith Thomas wrote. Nevertheless, it was still spewing saltwater on Jan. 8, OGCD Field Inspector Carl Saucier informed Southwest Ledger.
The commission has paid contractors “approximate-
Turn to DISPOSAL, p5 The purging well initially was expected to be properly plugged “shortly after Thanksgiving,” Corporation Commission Administrative Law Judge Keith Thomas wrote. Nevertheless, it was still spewing saltwater on Jan. 8, OGCD Field Inspector Carl Saucier informed Southwest Ledger.
The commission has paid contractors “approximately half a million dollars” to haul off saltwater that was discovered pouring from the purging well in mid-September, Corporation Commissioner Todd Hiett told the Ledger on Jan. 6.
Fluid from the Caddo County purge has been transported in tanker trucks to a licensed disposal well north of Hydro in Blaine County operated by S&S Star, a commission spokesman told the Ledger on Nov. 12.
The OCC retained two tanker truck operators to collect the fluid and “haul it away” to the disposal site, the spokesman said. The commission was averaging “about 11 to 13 truck tank loads per day” on Oct. 8, he said.
Each truck holds 120 barrels, and the purge was filling about six tanker truck loads per day as of Nov. 10, the Ledger was told.
The volume of saltwater trucked to the disposal site was 747 barrels on Nov. 11, Saucier reported. That was less than half from the peak of 1,582 barrels on Sept. 26, the OCC spokesman told the Ledger.
Each barrel is equivalent to 42 gallons.
It was costing the OGCD approximately $3,700 per day to continue hauling away the purge water to the disposal well “and containing the site so no additional pollution occurs,” Saucier told Thomas on Sept. 16.
OCC Chair Kim David sent a letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt on Sept. 24, advising him of a “serious environmental emergency and threat to public health and safety” from the Caddo County saltwater purge. The governor immediately authorized the agency to “employ the necessary service contractors to abate this environmental emergency and threat…” Also that day the three-member Corporation Commission agreed that “use of unencumbered and unallocated State funds to contain and hopefully stop the purge … is appropriate in this case.”
Poisoned cattle led to discovery of well breach Saucier wrote that after he was contacted by Dillon Robbins of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality on Sept. 16, 2025, about a report of cattle and wildlife deaths in Caddo County, he launched an investigation.
Mike Loula of Colony told an Oklahoma City television station on Sept. 18 that he lost 25 head of cattle after they drank apparently toxic water from Five Mile Creek where it flows across property he owns near Eakly.
Saltwater was discovered breaching the surface and flowing into the creek two miles upstream from Loula’s property. The saltwater “tested over 130,000 parts per million (ppm) total dissolved solids,” Saucier reported.
The saltwater “purge” was discovered on land owned by Jim Ridgeway of Carnegie, Saucier said.
The Pearcy #1 commercial saltwater disposal well – the only disposal well in the vicinity of the purge – was shut down “in an attempt to slow and stop the purge,” Saucier wrote. At least two producing wells also were shut in “so that casing pressures could be monitored,” he explained.
Those two wells were soon allowed to resume production, but the Nject disposal well was “redtagged” and remains shut in, the OCC spokesman said.
After the purge was discovered, Nject Disposal “worked with” the OGCD to excavate trenches near the purge “to prevent the contaminated water from flowing into” Five Mile Creek, which feeds Cobb Creek and Fort Cobb Lake – a source of drinking water for Chickasha and Anadarko.
Several water wells in the vicinity of the purge were tested “to determine the extent of any contamination,” Saucier reported.
State regulators began conducting field tests throughout Five Mile Creek, Cobb Creek, and Fort Cobb Lake on Sept. 17. The OCC collected samples for analysis of produced water from nearby leases and from the purge. After the purge was diverted, it was found to pose “no current risk to the residents of Anadarko or Chickasha.”
The level of total dissolved solids in the creek slowly declined throughout the week “as Nject worked on removing saltwater from two deep pools found in the creek – one where the purge began and another four miles south of it.” As a result, Five Mile Creek “has been brought back to beneficial use,” Saucier wrote in an Oct. 6 report.
Nject Disposal, which is based in Kingfisher, paid to have purge water hauled off “for a few days, but was forced to stop due to lack of sufficient financial resources,” Thomas wrote. Nject’s assistance ended on Sept. 19, Saucier told the OCC.
Consequently, the Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma, stepped in to contain the purge.
After the OCC investigation identified Nject’s Pearcy #1 in the vicinity of the purge, the OGCD performed a water sample analysis by testing flowback water from the Pearcy #1 to water flowing out of the purge site. Results showed many similarities between the two samples, particularly the presence of acetone which also was present in the “fracking” water injected into the Pearcy #1, the commission reported.
The OGCD believes the Pearcy #1 injected saltwater at a pressure of approximately 750 pounds per square inch, which saturated the formation into which it was pumping the fluid. As a result, fluid breached the surface 1.3 miles away “through a previously unidentified 100-year-old mud-plugged well drilled into the same formation,” the commission spokesman said.
“We’re sitting on hundred- year-old infrastructure” throughout the state, Hiett said.
NJect “violated Commission rules as alleged in the complaint filed in this case,” ALJ Thomas wrote. An OCC administrative rule which regulates proper drilling requires an operator to conduct operations in a manner that does not cause pollution, he noted. The Pearcy #1 also failed a mechanical integrity test on Sept. 30, and the company failed to file a plugging agreement and “proper sureties,” he related.
An Oklahoma Corporation Commission officer initiated an enforcement action against Nject Disposal LLC, seeking fines and reimbursement of “various costs” arising from the saltwater “purge” that’s been flowing in Caddo County for almost four months.
In his “Complaint for Contempt of Rules and Regulations” filed Nov. 6, Jeremy Hodges, director of the Oil and Gas Conservation Division, said his division may seek “the maximum lawful amount of $5,000 per violation per day” as allowed by state statute.
He also requested an order to revoke the permit that authorized Nject Disposal of Houston, Texas, to operate the Pearcy #1 saltwater disposal well.
Hodges said his division also may seek forfeiture of whatever surety Nject posted for its disposal well, or may seek to increase that bond.
The Corporation Commission has vowed to “continue its operation” to collect and dispose of the saltwater discharging from the Caddo County site “until such time as the flow stops,” the commission spokesman said.
“We’ll get ’er knocked out eventually,” Saucier said.
Nject agrees to plug both wells and remediate sites Among the provisions in the Nov. 25 interim order, Nject pledged that after its injection well and the purging well have been “properly plugged,” Nject will coordinate with the OGCD to “determine the proper steps to remediate the purge site,” including any excavation and hauling away of contaminated soil. The purge site “will need to be restored to re-establish vegetative growth in the denuded areas” damaged by the saltwater.
The “exact amount” Nject will be invoiced by the Oil and Gas Conservation Division will be determined when the case is reopened on March 6 “to determine whether” Nject has “satisfied the requirements” of the interim order, OCC ALJ Thomas wrote on Nov. 25. That bill may top $1 million.
The interim order was signed by Anthony J. Ferate of Oklahoma City, attorney for Nject Disposal, and by Tyler Trout, deputy general counsel for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
The Ledger placed multiple telephone calls to Ferate for comments about the case, but he never responded.
The newspaper also spoke with Jeremy Hodges, director of the Oil and Gas Conservation Division, but he declined to answer a handful of questions because of pending legal issues in the case.