Extreme Land Makeover

OERB helps landowners clean up the mess that oil companies left behind

By Anna Politano

It’s been said that part of being a good citizen is to not only take from the land, but to give. For many landowners in Oklahoma, this principle couldn’t be truer.

Before Oklahoma even reached statehood, our forefathers found a treasure in the soil beneath their feet: oil. With oil came drilling and a vast array of oil production activity that employed our people but left our piece of Earth a little scarred.  And so it was left to landowners across Oklahoma to clean up the remains of inactive well sites, some of which were built before their time. However not everyone has the resources to clean up their land, and many unproductive sites were left to rot in otherwise scenic Oklahoma pastures.

With these sites in mind, Oklahoma’s oil producers and royalty owners, with the assistance of the Oklahoma State Legislature, formed the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board (OERB) in 1993, with the goal of restoring orphaned and inactive well sites at no cost to the landowner.

“Each one of us has the opportunity to look at a piece of land for a short time in the grand scheme of things, and you want it [the land] to get better during your stewardship,” Oklahoma rancher John Hughes said. “But there were things we couldn’t afford on our own. We suffered a lot of damage from oil activity for many years.”

Hughes, a member of Verdigris Valley Electric, owns a cattle and wild horse ranch in Osage County, southwest of Bartlesville. Hughes said his property has been in his family since 1938 when his father acquired the land.

“A lot of the damage to our land was done prior to 1938,” he said. “I read an article published in 1903 from the Bartlesville Examiner newspaper at the Bartlesville History Museum that says six wells were built on lot 44, which is part of our ranch today.”

Hughes saw adverstiments about OERB restoration efforts on TV, and he thought it was too good to be true that an organization would come and clean up his property for free. But OERB proved him wrong. They came to Hughes’ ranch to evaluate the damage, saw the needs of the land and restored it. And they did, in fact, do it for free.

“We had old power house locations where concrete structures had been left as well as a lot of old oil field junk equipment, drilling sites and more. Salt water damage had killed our grass,” Hughes said.

Now Hughes has nothing but good things to say about OERB.

“I’d recommend OERB to anyone who has old oil field damage,” he said. “This is one of the best things that ever happened to farmers and ranchers in Oklahoma.”

However, Hughes’ initial skepticism is shared by many landowners across the state.

According to OERB’s Communications Director Mary Ann Osko, this hesitation is one of OERB’s greatest challenges.

“Our obstacle is that people think it’s too good to be true,” Osko said.

But after restoring 8,000 well sites across the state so far, the OERB staff and board hope Oklahomans will begin to trust the organization’s promise to restore land at no cost.

Environmental Director Steve Sowers said OERB is funded through a voluntary one-tenth of one percent assessment on the sale of oil and natural gas in Oklahoma, paid for by oil and natural gas producers and royalty owners.

According to OERB’s website, 95 percent of their contributions remain in the fund, making OERB one of the most supported check-off systems in the country.

Sowers said that once a landowner contacts OERB, the first step is to determine if there is a responsible party for the damage left on the land. If a responsible party is not found, OERB will agree to clean up the orphaned site at no cost to the landowner.

OERB removes location pads, equipment, concrete, roads, trash and debris. The OERB contractors also remove hydrocarbons, closing pits and repair erosion and saltwater scars as well as other damages caused by oil field activity. They also revitalizing the area’s vegetation and reseed the grass.

Oklahoma contractors throughout the state work for OERB, boosting the state’s economy Sowers said OERB has a good group of local contractors who are checked throughly before being hired to work on the sites..

Executive Director Mindy Stitt has been with OERB since its inception in 1993, and she believes the testimonies of landowners across the state are encouraging farmers and ranchers to contact OERB. 

“Landowners are starting to understand that we are good stewards of the land,” Stitt said. “In the ’10s and  ’20s our forefathers didn’t really understand the consequences they were leaving behind with the oil activity. We’re trying to revitalize what the past owners have done. It’s a good thing for everyone. Producers took it upon themselves to do something meaningful.”

It has certainly been more than meaningful for one Oklahoma resident and Indian Electric member, Janice Scroggins.

She and her husband, Gerald, own a ranch in Morrison where oil producers left damage behind. She learned about OERB through a TV commercial and decided to give it a try.

“OERB came in two weeks,” Scroggins said. “I signed the papers, and they brought their equipment. They cleaned up 25 acres of oil field refinery. They were so grateful I called them to help me, but I was the one grateful.”

She said throughout the years her father and her family had constantly worked to clean up the land. However, because of the lack of resources and appropriate equipment their efforts did not make a great difference. Janice’s father passed away in 1995 without seeing the land cleaned.

“It was the winter before he passed away that I had him close outside because he was feeble, and he was looking at the pastures and he asked me ‘Do you think we will ever get this cleaned up, sister?’ and I said, ‘We’ll keep trying.’ It got it cleaned up, just for my daddy,” she said. 

Although OERB has also embraced the mission of educating the public and students about Oklahoma’s Oil and Natural Gas Industry and bringing conservation awareness to many families in Oklahoma by helping weatherize hundreds of homes, land restoration remains at the heart of what they do.

“The most rewarding part of my job is to see that we are able to help Oklahomans, and for the most part, people are happy to see us coming,” Stitt said.“We’re able to make a difference in someone’s life.”

And, landowners have no doubt; OERB is making a difference. In the cycle of giving and taking, OERB enables landowners to give back to the land. Hughes’ ranch in Bartlesville has been a haven for older, unadopted wild horses for 20 years. Hughes said his land is used for cattle grazing, but also as a home for thousands of wild horses sent from the Bureau of Land Management to his ranch each year.

“We enjoy working with the horses, and taking care of them. It’s a good experience for us,” Hughes said.

To register an abandoned well site, please contact OERB at 1-800-664-1301 or online at www.oerb.com.