Oklahoma lawmakers are moving forward with a plan to protect homeowners from oil field contamination, after state regulators said they don’t have the legal authority to help a family whose house was flooded with oily waste.
S.B. 1319 would give the Oklahoma Corporation Commission the ability to remediate oil, brine and other contaminants if they’re found in a home and creates a revolving fund to pay for the work. It would also enable the Commissioners of the Land Office — and in some cases cities or counties — to purchase and demolish homes that have been contaminated.
The bill was passed in response to the plight of Kara and Mitch Meredith, who were forced out of their home in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, when part of the structure flooded with a noxious fluid. Similar problems have cropped up with old wells in Texas and other oil-producing states, in some cases causing geysers of wastewater to erupt from the ground.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates oil and gas production and oversees oil field cleanups, said it couldn’t get involved because the family’s home sat over the source of the leak and it didn’t have the authority to either remove the structure or look under it.
