Public Interest Investigation
Abandoned oil wells are poisoning Texas land and water.
An estimated 476,000 unplugged wells sit beneath Texas soil. Wells plugged decades ago are blowing out, spewing toxic brine, and contaminating the Pecos Valley freshwater aquifer. This tool connects the public records that reveal who is responsible.
$4.7 billion in federal cleanup funding runs out in 2030, and state grant windows close sooner. Time is running out.
File: Permian Basin · TX-RRC District 8 · Crane · Reeves · Ward · Winkler · Pecos · Upton
~476K
Unplugged wells in Texas
Carbon Tracker
154,662
Idle / inactive wells
RRC, Apr 2026
11,000+
Documented orphan wells
RRC, Jan 2026
$4.7B
Federal funding authorized
DOI / IIJA
2030
Federal funding ends
42 USC 15907
up to 57%
Injected fluid may leak
SPE-228187-MS
The Record
Key Incidents
Early 2022
100-Foot Geyser, Crane County
A well drilled by Gulf Oil in 1948 and plugged in 1957 erupts, sending an estimated 25,000 barrels/day of toxic brine into the air. Chevron, which inherited the well, is ordered to respond.
Texas Monthly →Nov 2022
M5.4 Earthquake — Strongest in Permian Basin in Decades
Northern Culberson-Reeves area. RRC determines deep injection is likely contributing. Three disposal wells within 9km ordered shut-in.
Texas RRC / TexNet →Dec 2023
Wight Ranch Blowout — $2.5M to Plug One Well
A single zombie well on Bill Wight’s ranch cost $2.5 million to plug. Most orphan wells cost far less, roughly $20,000 to $300,000 each, but with more than 11,000 statewide the cleanup bill runs into the hundreds of millions.
Texas Tribune →Jul 2024
SMU Study Proves Injection Causes Blowouts
Using satellite radar (InSAR), researchers prove that injection wells 12 miles away caused the Crane County blowout. 20 cm/yr surface uplift. Published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Geophysical Research Letters →Dec 2023
Satellite Data Predicts Well Failure Before It Happens
Analysis of 223 Sentinel-1 satellite images identifies 52 cm of ground uplift over a 2-kilometer area in Crane County. Researchers warn of imminent failure. Weeks later, the predicted blowout occurs — the first documented case of InSAR predicting a zombie well failure.
AGU Conference →Oct 2024
Toyah Blowout — H₂S Gas Threatens Small Town
A well drilled in 1961 erupts 5 miles from Toyah. 100-foot tower of oily water. Hydrogen sulfide detectable 2+ miles. Kinder Morgan takes 19 days to seal it.
Texas Tribune →Mar 2025
200-Foot Sinkhole Growing in Upton County
A well plugged in 1977 has created a 200-foot-wide, 40-foot-deep sinkhole with crude oil migration. No responsible party exists because the well was ‘properly plugged.’
Texas Tribune →Dec 2025
Chevron Settles Antina Ranch Lawsuit (Confidential)
After years of litigation, Chevron reaches a confidential settlement one month before trial. No public record of cleanup commitments.
Hoodline / Bloomberg →2025
UH Machine Learning Flags 60% of Reeves County Wells
University of Houston researchers use satellite imagery and Random Forest ML to score 3,364 legacy wells in Reeves County. Result: 664 exceed the high-risk threshold. Approximately 60% are flagged as leaking or needing immediate attention. Engineering analysis finds up to 57% of injected wastewater may be leaking through compromised wells.
SPE-228187-MS →2025
Wink Sinkholes — Ground Sinking 15+ Inches Per Year
InSAR monitoring near Wink, Texas reveals massive subsidence bowls where ground is sinking over 15.5 inches per year. Abandoned wells provide conduits for water to dissolve underground salt formations, creating growing voids that threaten roads and pipelines.
JPT/SPE →Jan 2026
Meister Lawsuit Names 8 Oil Companies
Billy Wayne Meister Jr. sues Blackbeard, Goodnight Midstream, Conoco, Citation, Formentera, Milwee, Petex, and Walsh & Watts for injection-caused damage to his 6,000-acre ranch.
Inside Climate News →Mar 2026
Devon-Coterra $58B Merger — Disposal Capacity Becomes the Constraint
Devon Energy and Coterra announce a $58 billion mega-merger. Industry analysts note that finite disposal capacity, not capital, has become the primary constraint on Permian Basin oil production. Operators are building basin-scale pipeline networks to move wastewater out of the stressed Delaware Basin.
Corporate Announcements →The Science
Peer-Reviewed Research
Southern Methodist University
Investigation of Oil Well Blowouts Triggered by Wastewater Injection
Geophysical Research Letters, 2024
InSAR satellite data proves injection wells 12 miles away caused Crane County blowout via 20 cm/yr surface uplift. Excess pressure >3 MPa means more blowouts likely.
Read →Princeton University
Abandoned Well Methane Emissions
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
10% of abandoned wells produce 90% of legacy methane emissions. Properly identifying super-emitters is critical for climate mitigation.
Read →UT Austin / Bureau of Economic Geology
TexNet Seismicity Research
TexNet / CISR
Comprehensive seismic monitoring network linking injection operations to induced earthquakes across Texas, including the M5.4 event in the Permian Basin.
Read →USGS
Documented Unplugged Orphaned Oil and Gas Well Dataset
USGS Data Release
117,672 documented orphaned wells across 27 states. Texas ranks among the states with the highest concentration. Dataset includes coordinates, well type, and status.
Read →University of Houston
Categorizing Legacy Wellbores via MCDA and Machine Learning
SPE-228187-MS, 2025
ML model scored 3,364 legacy wells in Reeves County. 664 exceeded the 0.7 high-risk threshold. ~60% flagged as leaking or needing attention. Engineering analysis: up to 57% of injected fluid may leak through compromised wells.
Read →NASA / JPL
OPERA-DISP: Free Public InSAR Deformation Data
NASA Earthdata
Analysis-ready surface deformation maps from Sentinel-1 satellites. Publicly available — anyone can track ground uplift and subsidence near injection wells without specialized radar processing equipment.
Read →Earthworks
Fatal Vapors: H₂S Compliance Failures in Texas
Earthworks Investigation
In RRC District 8, 51% of 19,000+ wells failed to file required H-9 safety forms for hydrogen sulfide. The RRC does not track which wells require filings, making enforcement impossible. H₂S can kill within minutes above 700 ppm.
Read →The Coverage
In the News
Big Bend Sentinel
Back from the Dead: Zombie Wells
Trey Gerfers · June 16, 2026
A field investigation into how plugged and abandoned wells across the West Texas Permian Basin are reactivating decades later — venting hypersaline brine and pressurized gas through degraded steel casing and failed cement, with the most dangerous failures often the ones that leave no trace at the surface.
Read →Bloomberg
Chevron Buys West Texas Ranch in ‘Zombie’ Oil Well Settlement
David Wethe & Kevin Crowley · February 9, 2026
Chevron acquired the 22,000-acre Antina Ranch in Crane County, West Texas, whose owner Ashley Watt had spent years alleging the company negligently let decades-old Permian Basin wells leak toxic water and crude oil onto her land. The purchase, recorded under the name Crane Property Holdings, followed a confidential December settlement reached a month before the case was set for trial; no price was disclosed.
Read →Inside Climate News
New Lawsuit Claims ‘Catastrophic Impacts’ From Permian Basin Injection Wells
Martha Pskowski · January 28, 2026
West Texas landowner Billy Wayne Meister Jr. filed suit in Crane County against eight oil and gas companies, including Blackbeard Operating and Goodnight Midstream, alleging that improperly operated saltwater injection wells and abandoned wells caused groundwater contamination and surface blowouts on his Permian Basin property.
Read →DeSmog
Blowout Erupts in West Texas’s Permian Basin, Creating 100-Foot Tower of Oily Water
Sharon Kelly & Justin Hamel · October 4, 2024
A well blowout near Toyah, Texas erupted into an uncontrolled geyser of oil, water, and gas reaching more than 100 feet high, with the suspected source a 1961 well formerly operated by El Paso Natural Gas Company. The Texas Railroad Commission was investigating to identify the responsible party and bring the eruption under control.
Read →Texas Tribune
Ranchers Reported Abandoned Oil Wells Spewing Wastewater. A New Study Blames Fracking
Dylan Baddour & Carlos Nogueras Ramos · August 7, 2024
A Southern Methodist University study offers the first scientific evidence tying wastewater injected during fracking operations to blowouts at abandoned oil wells in the West Texas Permian Basin. Researchers found pressurized injection fluids traveled through geological faults to breach previously sealed wells, spraying contaminated brine across ranchland.
Read →Texas Monthly
A Forgotten Oil Well Births a 100-Foot Geyser in West Texas
Russell Gold · January 2022
Around New Year’s 2022, a long-forgotten well on a Crane County cattle ranch southwest of Odessa roared to life, shooting roughly 25,000 barrels a day of briny water 100 feet into the air. The blowout traced to a dry hole drilled by Gulf Oil in 1948 and plugged in 1957; because Chevron had acquired Gulf in 1984, the Railroad Commission assigned it responsibility for the well.
Read →Grist
The Permian Basin Is Ground Zero to Billions of Dollars in Zombie Oil Wells
Clayton Aldern, Christopher Collins & Naveena Sadasivam · March 2021
An investigation by Grist and The Texas Observer finds the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico has become ground zero for a surge of abandoned, unplugged “zombie” oil and gas wells that leak methane and toxic chemicals. The outlets’ modeling projects thousands more wells are likely to be abandoned in coming years as cleanup costs climb toward $1 billion and regulators remain underfunded.
Read →Is your land affected?
You don't need to know the API number. You don't need to understand RRC databases. Describe what you see — odors, discolored soil, bubbling water, dead vegetation — and we'll cross-reference it with state records, seismic data, and satellite imagery.
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