A salt water leak at a Carter County oil production facility has led to a cease-and-desist order from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Williford Resources received the order after a June 10 inspection found the Tulsa-based company’s facility discharging oil field brine into nearby Demijohn Creek near Lone Grove. The order requires Williford Resources to stop the discharges into the creek and provide written certification to the EPA that the repairs are complete.
Hearne Williford, owner of the company, said the facility southwest of Lone Grove has already been cleaned up and brought to the EPA’s standards.
“I’m sure it was just a leak on the manifold on the surface,” Williford said. “It was all taken care of, cleaned up.”
Dave Bary of the EPA said that oil field brine is a by-product of the oil production process. Bary said there wasn’t enough brine discharged to affect human ecologies, only the plant and animal life of the creek.
