Reporter for Inside Climate News in El Paso, Texas. Reporting on water, oil, gas, borders.
Martha Pskowski
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thinking about the shitty guy I dated in CDMX who broke up with me over fb messenger but before that he took me to see Mexico play a friendly match at Estadio Azteca and for that I am forever grateful 🙏
Injection wells have created an over-pressurized zone under the Permian Basin and that wastewater is leaking to the surface through old wells. The leak started on April 21. Over the next eight days, more than 1.5 million gallons of toxic wastewater flowed out of the earth, according to state records
In the last week, I went Juarez (twice), Hatch, Las Cruces, Fort Stockton, Grandfalls/Imperial and Marfa. Can't wait to write some stories and then sleep for a long time.
Wastewater, fortunately, did not enter the church. The imminent threat passed. But questions linger for the church’s pastor and Permian Basin residents. Why do old wells in the area keep blowing out? What will happen if the next leak isn’t under a parking lot, but a house or school?
Pastor David Tucker, who works in the oil industry, hopes it's a wakeup call for risks of injecting too much waste underground.
“We’re doing something subsurface and I think everybody knows it,” he said. “We’ve turned a lot of the shale play into just one big crack. Everything’s communicating.”
journalism is eternally humbling because you think you know what to expect and then... you're totally wrong
The state regulator, the Railroad Commission, spent $1.49 million plugging the leak and another $1.16 million disposing of the wastewater back underground. By early June, crews had stopped the flow and plugged the wellbore.
An old oil well sprang back to life under the parking lot of the First Baptist Church of Grandfalls in April. I went to see it last week and speak with the interim pastor of the church 👇
insideclimatenews.org/news/1106202...
“We’re doing something subsurface, and I think everybody knows it. We’ve turned a lot of the shale play into just one big crack. Everything’s communicating.”
-David Tucker, on the oilfield waste leak under his church in the Permian Basin insideclimatenews.org/news/1106202...
Contaminated groundwater has spread beneath this Long Island town, spreading PFAS and 1,4 dioxane beneath properties near a large landfill. See my latest:
