‘EPA Pledges Bird Creek Clean-Up’

  • Logan Layden

EPA Administrator and former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was back in the Sooner State last week — to talk about what his agency plans to do about saltwater contamination in Bird Creek in Osage County that could be tied to the oil and gas industry.

EPA Pledges Bird Creek Clean-Up

The Tulsa World reports that saltwater contamination was first reported in August 2016 when an oily sheen appeared on North Bird Creek along with dead fish and turtles a few miles from the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

The water is a byproduct of extracting oil. The oil and water are separated and the water is injected back into rock formations.

Testing by EPA indicates warm saltwater is percolating up into the creek but the precise source of the saltwater remains unknown.