This spring, a Permian Basin pastor got an unpleasant surprise: a geyser of more than 1.5 million gallons of toxic brine gushing up through the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Grandfalls. It was a “zombie well”—what happens when the plug on one of the state’s hundreds of thousands of old wells fails, releasing poisonous gas and water onto the property above.
These blowouts are dangerous in themselves. The gas that comes up can be poisonous enough to kill, as it did an oilfield worker and his wife in Odessa in 2019. The water carries benzene and xylene, which cause cancer and wreck the hormonal and reproductive systems of humans and animals. When it comes from injected wastewater, it can also carry a secretive mix of synthetic chemicals, including the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS.
