Oklahoma Energy Resources Board completes milestone cleanup

Fink recognized the signs of an old saltwater spill on the 320-acre ranch, but eventually he saw the land's potential despite damage wrought by oil and natural gas activity.

Fink has spent years cleaning up as much of the abandoned oil-field equipment as he could with “a tractor and a chain,” but he needed some help from the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board to fully restore the property.

Crews hired by OERB removed cement foundations, tank batteries and steel flow lines. They even cleaned up the spill on the north side of the Finks' property, making it possible for grass to grow there again.

“They did more than we even asked for,” he said.

It was the 12,000th cleanup OERB has completed since it was created in 1993.

The agency, which is funded voluntarily by producers and royalty owners through a one-tenth of 1 percent assessment on the sale of oil and natural gas, now has completed 12,233 cleanups in 67 counties. It has spent more than $74 million on those efforts on sites where the operator responsible for the damage cannot be found.

“The OERB started with an original list of 17 remediation projects. Sites are not just a plot of land but a part of someone's property and livelihood,” Executive Director Mindy Stitt said. “To know we have now positively affected more than 12,000 landowners by returning the land to a usable state is a point of pride for the OERB and the oil and natural gas industry.”