Massive U.S. Aquifer Threatened
‘“Oil and water don’t mix.” That saying receives new meaning in light of a proposed disposal well for oil fracking wastewater, which Colorado-based startup oil and gas company Terex Energy Corporation plans for southern Sioux County in northwestern Nebraska. The project on the Lawcomer ranch, 14 miles north of Mitchell, Neb., took county residents by surprise, but opposition formed almost immediately, primarily because of a perceived threat to the land and—most importantly—the gigantic Ogallala Aquifer. AMERICAN FREE PRESS spoke extensively with a Terex executive and concerned citizens.
Sioux County is “God’s country.” The people traditionally take care of the land and the water. It is their life and their livelihood. The county is near the western end of the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides ultra-pure water to almost 1.9 million people, farms and ranches in eight states. Its natural water flow is from west to east.
Terex wants to use a 30-year-old dry oil well to inject up to 15,000 barrels of wastewater (630,000 gallons) per day, at 1,200-1,300 pounds per square inch pressure, into two 30% porous sandstone strata more than a mile below the aquifer.’
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