Texas Oil Boom Spawns a Toxic Crisis of the Industry’s Own Making

2 comments

When Dunlap was asked by a rancher to investigate leaking wells owned by Chevron Corp., he expected state regulators to help. Instead the commission that oversees oil and gas operations in Texas directed the ranch’s concerns to its lawyers. Relations with Chevron deteriorated into an acrimonious lawsuit. And after the rancher captured drone footage of wastewater spewing high into the sky, the regulatory commission made the area a no-fly zone, citing safety concerns.

Hawk Dunlap Photographer: Mark Felix/Bloomberg
“They don’t want to know about it, and they don’t want anyone else to know about it,” he said on a sweltering afternoon in West Texas, pausing to spit chewing tobacco into an empty Topo Chico bottle. “But I don’t back up too easy.”