Art and Yvonne Platt are lifelong Oklahomans whose forefathers participated in the Oklahoma Land Run. They have now lost everything they had as a result of a horizontal frack job that destroyed their wells!

OEPA had the privilege of interviewing this couple and hearing their story and frustrations.

“I’m 80 years old. We were depending on this lease for our retirement,” said Art Platt. “We’ve spent every cent we had trying to fix the damage the horizontal fracker caused when they Fracked into our well.”

Now Art and Yvonne have been forced to leave Oklahoma and move in with their children in Texas.

It is gut-wrenching when we watch longtime Oklahoma small business oil and gas producers lose everything to the disregard of Horizontal frackers who take the oil and gas they have found and are producing leaving their destroyed vertical wells in their wake. This story really says it all. It’s never right to take someone else’s property.

You can see the entire interview here.

Advances in technology like Horizontal drilling and fracking are producing benefits for Oklahoma and our nation. This technology can and MUST be regulated in a way to keep from hurting people and the environment.

However, the regulation developed over the last 100 years while effective for traditional vertical wells is inadequate to protect existing vertical wells and the environment from the massive high pressure horizontal fracks of today. These fracks are carried out over as much as two miles, destroying 70% of the vertical wells in their path. Some of these vertical wells might become a conduit to our groundwater.

In fact, in Oklahoma anyway, there are no permitting requirements nor regulations on horizontal fracking.

The biggest sin of all is that the big horizontal Fracking companies refuse to admit that they are causing any problems at all!

We desperately need regulation that protects the rights of others and the environment.

Admitting the problem and committing to eliminating the destruction these fracking companies have caused would not only be right, but it would also be good business.

Oklahoma is probably the most development-friendly state for oil companies wanting to drill and frack horizontal wells. We should care at least as much about our citizens as we do about big oil.

Are you aware of problems associated with horizontal fracking?