Government to clean up abandoned oil wells near Oologah

OOLOGAH, Okla. (AP) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a special U.S. Coast Guard task force are teaming up with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to clean up long-abandoned and unplugged oil wells that blacken the soil and pollute ponds and streams.

The oil wells are threatening the watershed east of Lake Oologah in northern Rogers County. The lake is where area communities and rural water districts get their drinking water. Tulsa gets 50 percent of its water from Lake Oologah.

Crude oil and other substances ooze through rusty steel into unkempt pools of liquid around a group of old oil tank batteries that are all that remains of a once-active oil lease. The substances mix with abandoned high voltage electrical wires and old feeder lines that are supposed to be buried below the plow line.

But the wires as well as old oil field equipment, valves, tanks and abandoned oil wells are everywhere across the pasture and woodlands where Jim Berry runs cattle on nearly 700 acres. Berry said he has lost 10 head of cattle this past year to the pollution.

A spokesman for the EPA said the agency has plugged 95 oil wells since arriving on the scene last fall, while the Corporation Commission has plugged more than 100.

Work still must be done on thousands of wells, the agency said.

The EPA will plug about one-third of the wells, while the state will plug the rest.

The work, broken down into three phases, is expected to take up to five years. The first phase takes in six square miles and should be completed next year.

The pollution hasn't reached Berry's land, but one well near the lake has created a pool of oil making its way closer to the waters edge.

That well is on the emergency list, Richard Franklin of the EPA said. "We're getting to the worst of the worst first and that one is scheduled to be plugged soon -- hopefully in the next two weeks," he said.

Franklin said EPA focuses on wells that threaten any stream, pond or lake. The agency soon will start work on at least 300 surging wells on the slopes east of Lake Oologah.

"We take any oil spill very seriously," Franklin said.

To help pay for the cleanup, the EPA has tapped the National Pollution Funds Center established by Congress. It will spend $4.5 million on the project on the east side of Lake Oologah in Rogers County.

Franklin said the EPA is using a strike force from the Coast Guard to secure the site. He said its members include specialists in oil spills who will watch over and record activity as the work progresses.

Tulsa has been dealing with water quality issues at its other two water sources -- Lake Spavinaw and Lake Eucha. Problems have been caused by chicken producers and processors upstream.

The first wells were drilled in Oologah as early as 1913, according to a 980-page abstract supplied by Berry. Things apparently grew worse in the oil field as major oil companies moved on after pumping what oil they wanted before leaving wells to the strippers.

Berry said strippers squeezed the last profitable remnants of oil from the land, and for the most part abandoned the lease about three years ago. He finally got the Corporation Commission to take the last lease holders to court. After a 13-month battle, 19 wells were plugged.