West Texas

 

The Dead Sea of West Texas

A Pecos County well has leaked noxious salt water for almost two decades. No one is taking responsibility for getting it cleaned up.

By Russell Gold

December 8, 2021

 

Quot from the above article

" Robert Mace

About twenty-five miles north of Fort Stockton sits what looks, at first blush, like an oasis amid the West Texas desert. When I recently visited what might be Texas’s newest sizable body of water, its color was a pleasant sea green. A flock of ducks circled in the sky above and landed on the choppy surface.

Yet Lake Boehmer covers more than sixty acres of scrubland with a noxious brew. You wouldn’t want to sate your thirst with its water, which is three times saltier than the ocean, with a sulfate level twenty-five times greater than legally allowed for drinking. Lake Boehmer belches hydrogen sulfide gas, which at low concentrations generates a rotten egg smell and at higher concentrations kills the occasional waterfowl and causes headaches and nausea in humans..."

 

Here is sample responses -

 

By Steve: I0 years ago, wrote published letter to editor in ODESSA AMERICAN newspaper about HUGE piles of putrid, unremoved waste at businesses and along tax-paid roads, in and around City of Pecos and namesake County. There was no local county/State health office to report violations. I chatted by phone with elected County Judge, who could care less about health and well-being of voting constituents--he just wanted to by Judge for Life! I reported the matter to TX Dept. Health HQ at Austin and the state agency that investigate wrongdoings of at-will elected Judges who venture into the criminal darkside. Its BAD! enough Texas' rated #1 most waste litter polluted state (by numerous sources), with highest total state deaths in USA from incidents with that type of pollution, as tallied by the NHTSA.

Billincalgery: Petroleum companies use salt water to maintain pressure in the ground." true but where do you think they get the salt water form??duh!!! there ar ea lot of salt water reservoirs that are drilled when companies are looking for oil or gas.

The hydrology of the Pecos area has absolutely nothing to do with the development and location of oil reservoirs!!.sheesh!!!

Plugging wells will keep the fossil fuels inside but you do not plug a well with cement..there is a unit that is put down the well bore ot where you want to plug the well at which time that plug is expanded so it fits tight agaisnt the well bore,,then cement is poured down on top to secure the well

 

JR:

The company that originally dug these wells decades ago promised as part of the permitting process to pay for any contaminated water they released during their exploratory drilling.

Like a lot of companies that have had no problem stripping bare both the people and the land around the West Texas Permian, that company then defaulted on its obligations and promises by declaring bankruptcy.

How about this for a fix: any companies that want to continue to explore, drill, and benefit on the backs of the people and the land of West Texas have to put into a fund to clean up the mess made by their industry? This fund goes not only to cleaning up contaminated land and aquifers, but into pensions available to West Texas oilworkers who get laid off with zero notice when oil falls below $20 a barrel.

Pioneer is valued at nearly $50 billion; the rest of the Permian big 10 round out to nearly half a trillion dollars in total value. These companies can afford to help preserve the land and the people they're getting rich off of.

 

William: Russell, did you happen to see the active sinkhole that is forming a little south of there? I have always wondered if they were related. I tried to attach a pic but it’s not loading.

 

Sam: It seems a lot of people are missing his point. Yes, a lot of people live elsewhere than Austin, but Austin is where Texas leftists congregate. It's also the home of Texas Monthly and it's conglomeration of writers. Rick Perry once compared Austin to a blue blob in a red soup.

Bill: Well Said! Austin is akin to LA, San Fran, Portland and NYC. If Texas was like the aforementioned our state would have tax rates and crime rates just the same. Look at Houston and Dallas. Most folks have moved to the burbs to get away from the Snowflakes. I'm born and raised in Houston and lived in Dallas for 40 years. Its Sad to watch them succumb to the left.

Schuyler: H2S gas is deadly and is killing wildlife in the area. The salt is seeping into the local fresh water aquifer. The salt on the ground is killing the vegetation. The salt in the water is high in radiation. The oil in the water contains benzene. Its an environmental disaster.

Bill There isn't a shallow fresh water aquifer! That's why the rancher across the road had to drill 200 feet to reach decent water good enough for cattle as-is and for humans after being treated. The majority of the water in the Pecos Valley Aquifer is brackish with sulfates in varying degrees. That rancher is located where there's a nearby section that holds high levels of chlorides and sulfates which has intruded into his section of the aquifer to make his well unusable

P: Dude they actually treat their water before they drink it. Even in West Texas. Rule of thumb: whenever you hear the word "aquifer," button your wallet pocket.

Bill : The Culligan man does a lively business in the Pecos Water Valley!

B: These waters are more than likely filled with a wide assortment of minerals including lithium..could be a gold mine and not a bleamish

Sam: The article doesn't address where this water is coming from. Obviously, it's coming out of the ground. There's too much of it for it to be from oil wells so it's obviously from some kind of aquifer that has become polluted by gas or mineral deposits. Granted, oil wells reached it but they didn't cause the "pollution", for lack of a better word. If it's a disaster, it's a natural disaster and not something government can do much about.

Bill That's an artesian well. The water in that aquifer varies in quality with sections with a high chloride and sulfate content being surrounded with a section holding less chloride and sulfates that borders sections with decent water. Over time the brackish water intrudes into adjoining sections to render wells and springs unfit for use. El Paso gets most of their water from another aquifer that requires desalination and treatment to be fit for municipal use.
I live in NE Texas where people sunk wells into shallow local aquifers to get the water for watering lawns, gardens and livestock. After a few decades one area's wells started producing water fouled with iron with the rest gradually doing same over the following 10 years.