Jump to content. This piece was created for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in collaboration with The Frontier. Join Dispatches to receive stories, including this one, as soon as they become available. Following an investigation by The Frontier and ProPublica, an oil and gas company in Oklahoma closed a well that disposed of the toxic byproduct of oil production. This occurred after it was discovered that regulators had approved the well despite state rules designed to safeguard public groundwater sources. The disposal well, known as the Flying Monkey, injected wastewater from oil fields underground and was situated approximately a quarter-mile from two municipal groundwater supply sites that catered to the needs of the Enid, a small city in northwest Oklahoma. Wastewater injection is prohibited within a radius of half a mile from public water wells, except when regulators convene a hearing to verify that this practice won’t contaminate groundwater. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s regulators didn’t conduct a hearing prior to approving the well in 2018. The city of Enid submitted a complaint last year, requesting that the state revoke the Flying Monkey’s permit to operate. In September. The text states that while the complaint is ongoing at the agency’s administrative law court, employees from BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings LLC, the current owner of the Flying Monkey, took action to seal off the well. They did this by placing a cast iron plug at the bottom of the well and over 200 sacks of cement, as reported to the corporation commission. An official from the state attended the event of the well being plugged. Eric Huddleston, a lawyer for BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings, stated that the company chose to permanently close the well due to it being “underutilized and operationally unnecessary” after acquiring the Flying Monkey in 2020. A representative from the Corporation Commission has not responded to inquiries for feedback, including concerns regarding the agency’s involvement in the well’s closure. Enid city officials stated they were unaware that the well had been sealed until our reporter notified them. “This decision is, quite honestly, exhilarating because this matter is of utmost importance,” expressed Frank Baker, an Enid city commissioner.
