Monday is key in Kingfisher water dispute
KINGFISHER — An oil and gas association and Kingfisher County commissioners continue to spar about what regulatory agency controls how the industry uses temporary, county-permitted water lines. Association and county officials have communicated, but no agreement has been reached. Meanwhile, the county faces a Monday deadline to ask for a rehearing on a case the Oklahoma
Independent Petroleum Association — Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association brought to the court to answer that question.
At issue is commissioners’ position that they will only permit temporary lines to be placed in county rights of way when they are used to carry fresh water to well locations for completion operations in the STACK play in westcentral Oklahoma.
Citing environmental concerns, commissioners took that stance in May after learning some operators had been using temporary lines to transport produced, treated water to completion locations. Oil and natural gas industry representatives objected, saying that restriction potentially could add millions of dollars in costs to well completion activities.
Additionally, they warned the restriction would significantly increase truck traffic and increase companies’ use of fresh water that otherwise could be used for crop irrigation and other purposes.
Attempts to negotiate an amicable solution to the problem failed, ultimately landing the issue before the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled state law gives the Oklahoma Corporation Commission the exclusive authority to regulate oil and gas operations.
But since that ruling, the county hasn’t acted on pending permits.
That prompted attorney Mary Cooper of McAfee & Taft to send a letter on the industry association’s behalf this week to attorney Andrew E. Karim, of Harrison & Mecklenburg, who represents the county’s board of commissioners.
The letter, sent Nov. 26, noted the county hadn’t yet asked for a rehearing, hadn’t acted on pending permits and threatened additional court action unless something changes.
Karim confirmed the commissioners intend to ask the court to reconsider the question.
As for the commission’s decision related to pending permits, he informed the association “the board wants to be as certain as it can about any future actions it takes and the authority it has when it comes to granting any person the use of our easement along county roads.”
Chad Warmington, president of the association, said his group remains concerned.
With no action being taken on pending permits, “that’s a huge problem,” he said.
“We have got a backlog. We have a bunch of companies looking to lay lines, and we have completion jobs that are going to be impacted by the fact the operators can’t even get fresh water delivered to sites (using those lines),” he said.
“We are pretty frustrated because we think the court opinion was pretty clear about what the commissioners could or couldn’t do, and now they are doing nothing. We can’t just not have them approve permits, period. It is just not working for us.”