A long-running groundwater pollution case in West Texas has left the City of Midland paying millions and still waiting for a complete cleanup after a small oil company’s disposal operations allegedly tainted a key water reserve.
The problem surfaced in 2003, when Midland detected rising salinity in water samples from the T-Bar Ranch, a 20,000-acre property the city bought decades ago as a backup water supply. Midland’s investigation ultimately pointed to Heritage Standard Corporation, a Dallas-based operator that ran nearby oil and gas wells and a produced-water injection well. Midland filed a complaint with state regulators in 2007, and the Railroad Commission of Texas ordered remediation. But Heritage Standard filed for bankruptcy in 2010, setting off a years-long legal and regulatory process that limited the company’s cleanup obligations and shifted much of the cost burden elsewhere.
According to the report, the case illustrates how expensive and challenging oilfield groundwater remediation can be, especially in arid West Texas, where aquifers are increasingly valuable, and how bankruptcy can allow operators to shed environmental liabilities while contamination persists. The article also notes that Heritage Standard left behind inactive “orphan” wells that Texas must now plug, part of a broader statewide backlog. With Midland now relying on T-Bar for a significant share of its water supply, the city has taken over remediation efforts, including installing interceptor wells and pumping contaminated water, a process expected to cost millions more and continue for years.
Credit: The Texas Tribune (republished from Inside Climate News), reporting by Martha Pskowski.
Original story: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/22/texas-midland-water-reserve-polluted-oil-company-cleanup/