Kara Meredith can tell you the exact day her life changed: August 23, 2025.
She was at home in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, caring for her 5-week-old son, when one of her daughters ran in to tell her there was water all over the bathroom floor. Her husband, Mitch Meredith, wasn’t worried until he saw the dark liquid bubbling around the base of the tub. Mitch and his loved ones worked through the night to try to contain him. It was near dawn when his uncle said, “It’s oil.” »
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The United States is the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. All of this drilling produces hundreds of billions of gallons of toxic wastewater each year. For decades, energy companies disposed of this brackish fluid by discharging it underground using high-pressure injection wells. But across Oklahoma, the fluid is spreading uncontrollably underground, leaking from old, uncapped wells, polluting land and contaminating drinking water.
In a new documentary of The Frontier and ProPublica, reporter Nick Bowlin investigates the scourge of oilfield wastewater seeping into the lives of Oklahoma residents, about half of whom live within a mile of an oil and gas operation.
His reporting takes him to the headquarters of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state agency responsible for regulating oil and gas. The agency told Bowlin it was committed to “doing the right thing, holding operators accountable, protecting Oklahoma and its resources, and providing fair and balanced regulation.” But as Bowlin continues to dig, he discovers he’s far from the first to sound the alarm about what’s happening in Oklahoma.
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