Lawsuit: Leaking West Texas oil wells threaten drinking water

By Shelby Webb | 10/10/2024 06:48 AM EDT

A water district says the state’s oil and gas regulator must do more to plug old wells.

Dead trees sit in the middle of Boehmer Lake, which was created by a leak in an abandoned well.

Dead trees sit in the middle of Boehmer Lake, which was created by a leak in an abandoned well. The well, and others like it, are at the center of a lawsuit filed by the Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District. Shelby Webb/POLITICO's E&E News

A West Texas water manager is suing the state’s oil and gas regulator, alleging the agency is imperiling drinking water by refusing to plug old, repurposed oil wells that are now leaking.

But the Railroad Commission of Texas has remained steadfast in its position that — because the wells were converted for water purposes — it has no jurisdiction over them and no responsibility to plug them as part of the state’s orphaned well program.

In its lawsuit, the Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District says the wells pose a major threat to the area’s groundwater, making much of it unsafe for human consumption. Cole Ruiz, an attorney representing the Middle Pecos district, said the authority has been battling the Railroad Commission over the issue for years and has exhausted administrative processes to ask them to plug the wells. The suit was filed in district court in Travis County, Texas.

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“We need clarification from a Travis County district court judge about the Railroad Commission’s responsibility for plugging wells that were drilled as oil and gas wells and then abandoned,” Ruiz said in an interview. “And clarification with respect to whether a [groundwater] district has statutory authority within the natural resources code to compel the Railroad Commission to essentially follow its own rules with respect to landowners and use of the orphaned well fund.”

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