By Amanda Drane
July 18th, 2023
Lake Boehmer shimmered in the West Texas sun, a 60-acre body of water in Pecos County growing by roughly 200 toxic gallons a minute.
The dry desert air around Boehmer carried salt and the stench of rotten eggs, a hallmark of poisonous hydrogen sulfide. Sulfur and salt crystals coated the withered remains of mesquite killed by water about three times saltier than the ocean.
More dangerous is what you can’t see, feel or smell at Lake Boehmer — the subsiding earth, the radioactivity in the water, the methane in the air.
The high-pitched whine of an alarm pierced through the stench, indicating hazardous levels of hydrogen sulfide. Hawk Dunlap, a well control specialist tasked with monitoring the gushing problem at a nearby ranch, ushered observers to safer ground. “Come on,” Dunlap said. “The wind’s dying. Let’s get out of here.”
