Kara Meredith tells us the exact day her life changed forever: August 23, 2025.
She was caring for her 5-week-old son at her home in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, when one of her daughters ran up to her and told her there was water all over the bathroom floor. Her husband, Mitch Meredith, wasn’t worried until he saw black liquid bubbling around the bottom of the bathtub. Mitch and his relatives worked through the night to suppress it. It was near dawn when my uncle said, “This is oil.”
The United States is the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. These drillings produce hundreds of billions of gallons of toxic wastewater each year. For decades, energy companies have used high-pressure injection wells to inject that brine underground and dispose of it. But across Oklahoma, the liquid is spreading uncontrollably underground, gushing out of old, unplugged wells, contaminating land and contaminating drinking water.
In a new documentary from Frontier and ProPublica, reporter Nick Bowlin investigates the scourge of oil field wastewater that permeates the lives of Oklahomans. Approximately half of Oklahoma residents live within one mile of an oil and gas operation.
His report took him to the headquarters of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state agency tasked with regulating oil and gas. The agency told Bowlin it is committed to “doing the right thing, holding operators accountable, protecting Oklahoma and its resources, and providing fair and balanced regulation.” But as Bowlin continued his research, he realized he wasn’t the first to sound the alarm about what was happening in Oklahoma.
Watch the documentary here.
We have reported that oil and gas pollution contaminates drinking water, kills cattle, and damages property. We need your help to show how this impacts people across the state.
