____
A driver for Allied Eagle Transports monitors the transfer of a load of salt water, a byproduct of fracking, to a salt water disposal site on June 25, 2024 south of Midland. Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune
From the article:
West Texas ranchers who own land where contaminated water is seeping from underground are beginning to worry it will soon become uninhabitable.
Last February, saltwater flooded parts of Bill Wight’s ranch, about 50 miles southwest of Odessa. The lifelong rancher purchased the land in 2012, hoping to pass it on to his kids. He told The Texas Tribune he wasn’t sure how much of the ranch would survive the leaking wells.
When it was clear the flow of water threatened the property last December, he asked the Railroad Commission to seal the well the water had leaked from. It took the commission months and millions of dollars to plug the well.
His brother, Schuyler Wight, faces a similar predicament at his ranch roughly 60 miles to the west in Pecos County. He has asked the Railroad Commission for years to investigate the multiple abandoned leaking wells on his property. The liquid has eroded the equipment on the surface and killed the plants. After the water dried up, the ground was crusted white from salt.
“It’s what we’ve known all along,” Schuyler Wight said. “What we’re doing is not sustainable.”
____
Read the full article
