Leaking Oil Well Creates Nuisance For Jenks Neighborhood

An old oil well is causing big problems for a Jenks neighborhood.

The well in the Churchhill Park neighborhood, near 121st and Elwood, began leaking earlier this month and now the state is spending close to $18,000 to cap it off.

The abandoned oil well dates back nine decades, and now a mixture of saltwater and crude oil is seeping up through the ground around it.

And it's all happening right in front of Bobby Myers' home.

"I'm looking forward to getting it out of here. As you can see, I only have half a driveway to pull in to," Myers said.

Myers noticed the oil on January 3, when it had pooled on the east side of his street near a drainage gutter.

"Actually, I just thought somebody had dumped their car oil in the gutter," he said.

But after a closer look, Myers, who works in an oil field, knew it was something else, and now the Oklahoma Corporation Commission has begun the process of sealing off the old oil well.

"It could have been filled with mud. That was the way they done it back in the '20s," said Bob Scott, with the Corporation Commission.

He said the well is probably 1,200 feet deep with a pipe extending up to just below the surface. His plan is to seal it with two different cement plugs, one at 950 feet and another at 300 feet below the road.

The Corporation Commission has no record of this well, which Scott said is common for wells that date to the ‘20s.

He said there are probably hundreds of other wells just like it that no one knows about, after all this area and this neighborhood is right in the middle of the original Glenn Pool oil field.

"It concerns me a little bit, just because you could have an uncapped well underneath your house and you not even know it. So, that could be detrimental to your property value," Myers said.

Scott said, as long as no one touches it, the crude oil does not pose any danger to the residents.

He said if you think you've found an old oil well, just stay away from it and call the Corporation Commission.