{"id":650955,"date":"2026-05-18T20:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/650955\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T20:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T20:08:07","slug":"oily-sludge-is-flooding-their-dream-home-oklahoma-regulators-say-they-cant-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/650955\/","title":{"rendered":"Oily sludge is flooding their dream home. Oklahoma regulators say they can\u2019t help."},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nick Bowlin, The Frontier
May 18, 2026<\/p>\n

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This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica\u2019s Local Reporting Network. Sign up for Dispatches<\/a>\u00a0to get ProPublica stories in your inbox every week. <\/p>\n

It was their dream home, a newly built, 2,500-square-foot modern farmhouse with a playroom that Mitch and Kara Meredith had saved for 12 years to buy for their growing family. During construction, family members had written their favorite Bible verses on studs throughout the house. For four idyllic years on Darlene Lane, the couple hosted birthday parties for their two young daughters, who became fast friends with the other children in the recently built subdivision in Fort Gibson.<\/p>\n

Then one evening last summer, five weeks after the couple\u2019s third child was born, their bathroom flooded.<\/p>\n

When their 7-year-old ran into the garage to report that water was all over the floor, Mitch assumed a pipe had burst, or perhaps the toilet was backed up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then he entered the bathroom. A thick, black fluid with an oily sheen covered the floor. Kara yelled from their bedroom for him to come quickly; the same substance was flowing out of the floor next to their bed.<\/p>\n

Last August, dark, oily fluid came up through the floors of the Merediths\u2019 house and flooded their bathroom, bedroom and closet. Video collage by ProPublica. Photographs and videos courtesy of the Meredith family.<\/p>\n

Mitch, along with several family members, fought the flood all night, vacuuming up the sludge and emptying buckets out the window. Black goo covered their arms. Shiny rainbow patterns covered their shoes. After pulling the bathtub away from the wall, Mitch saw that the substance was gushing through the house\u2019s foundation. It was clear this wasn\u2019t a plumbing problem.<\/p>\n

Around 5 a.m., Mitch\u2019s uncle turned to him. \u201cI think this is oil,\u201d he said. The family called the fire department, and Kara rushed their three children, including their infant, to her grandmother\u2019s house.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s the last time we got to be in our home,\u201d Mitch said.<\/p>\n

\"\u201d\u201d\"<\/a>Mitch, Kara and their two daughters, Tennessee and Lakely, as their house was being built. \u201cWe assumed we were getting a perfect house,\u201d Mitch said. Courtesy of the Meredith family
\n\"\u201d\u201d\"<\/a>The Merediths invited family members to write Bible verses on the studs of the house. \u201cOur faith is what\u2019s most important to us, and we wanted to put that into the bones of the house,\u201d Kara said. Courtesy of the Meredith family
\n\"\u201d\u201d\"<\/a>
\n\"\u201d\u201d\"<\/a>The couple\u2019s third child, Fletcher, was born in July 2025. Forty days later dark, oily water surged through the foundation of their home. Courtesy of the Meredith family<\/p>\n

The Frontier and ProPublica\u2019s reporting on\u00a0oil and gas pollution<\/a>\u00a0in Oklahoma over the last year has shown how old oil wells abandoned by the industry pose severe\u00a0public and environmental health risks<\/a>. Officially, the state lists 19,000 orphan wells that state regulators are responsible for cleaning up, but the true figure is likely over 300,000, according to federal researchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State records suggest that the Merediths\u2019 house may have been built on top of an improperly plugged oil well drilled in the 1940s. And on that fateful Saturday last August, something woke it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mitch drilled a hole into his home\u2019s concrete foundation in hopes of diverting the sludge out of the house and into the yard. It worked: The foul-smelling water began to pour out of the cavity, filling a deep trench they had dug.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of their possessions were ruined. A strong smell of gas hung throughout the house, permeating clothes, sheets and mattresses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After leaving Darlene Lane, the family moved four times in four months \u2014 at times paying their mortgage and rent simultaneously.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the outset of the crisis, the family had pinned most of their hopes on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing oil and gas \u2014 including pollution from the industry and plugging old wells. They wanted the agency to figure out what happened \u2014 and help them clean it up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It did not take long for their hopes to transform into anger.<\/p>\n

In a September call, Mitch argued with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission about his case.\u00a0Courtesy of the Meredith family.<\/p>\n

State regulators, according to the family, have done little to help them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to act like it would go away,\u201d Mitch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In October, more than a month after the flooding began, Jeremy Hodges, the director of the commission\u2019s oil and gas division, met with Mitch and Kara at the house.<\/p>\n

He told them that when his team stuck a gas reader into the hole in their bathroom floor, where the oily water continued to flow, it showed gas concentrations at explosive levels, according to a recording that the Merediths provided to The Frontier and ProPublica.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The local public works authority had also brought out a gas reader. It found gas levels that constituted a \u201cserious and immediate hazard,\u201d according to a report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Old, unplugged wells \u2014 like the one that state records indicate is near or possibly under the Merediths\u2019 house \u2014 are known to leak gas and toxic fluids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hodges also told the couple that the agency would likely have to tear down the house to look for the well and plug it. Subsequent sampling conducted by the commission showed salt readings that suggested the presence of wastewater resulting from the production of oil and gas. Other testing by the state\u2019s environmental quality department found elevated levels of heavy metals commonly found in oil field wastewater including barium and bromide. Mitch took his own samples and paid an environmental lab to test them. The results also pointed to oil and gas pollution.<\/p>\n

Mitch didn\u2019t realize when his family rushed out of their house last August that they wouldn\u2019t be able to return. Katie Campbell\/ProPublica<\/p>\n

But as the months wore on, the agency never stated explicitly that the mysterious substance contaminating the Merediths\u2019 home was the byproduct of oil and gas production. It simply referred to the pollution as \u201cwater\u201d in public statements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a packed town hall in March convened after the family began criticizing the agency on social media, community members grilled Hodges and several other high-ranking agency representatives about the Merediths\u2019 situation for two hours, pressing them about the environmental risks and demanding action. About half of Oklahomans live within 1 mile of oil and gas wells.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you live there?\u201d a woman in the audience asked Hodges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to answer that,\u201d he responded, prompting jeers from the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you\u2019re saying that you don\u2019t want to answer the question of whether you would actually live in that house?\u201d asked Mitch\u2019s brother, Matt Meredith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a hypothetical,\u201d Hodges said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to answer that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGod, we just continue to pray that you will put a heavy conviction on these people\u2019s hearts, and that they would do the right thing,\u201d Kara prayed before a town hall meeting held by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to discuss the pollution on the family\u2019s property. Katie Campbell\/ProPublica<\/p>\n

Homeowners facing such an event should file damages with their insurance companies, Jim Marshall, an administrator with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, said from the front of the community center conference room. But the family\u2019s insurance company had denied their claim last fall \u2014 citing exclusions for pollution and water damage \u2014 without ever inspecting the damage, according to the Merediths\u2019 attorney. The Merediths have sued American Mercury, their insurance company, which did not answer questions about the case because of pending litigation, as well as their developers, who did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the public meeting, Marshall suggested underground water sources could be pushing fluid into the home, noting that the Merediths\u2019 neighborhood once contained several ponds. If the culprit is not oil and gas, that would shift the responsibility for cleanup to other state agencies. Marshall, Hodges and an agency attorney repeatedly told the crowd that with the house likely blocking access to the well, the agency had reached the end of its legal ability to help the Merediths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jack Damrill, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, did not answer questions about what the agency thinks is causing the pollution but said it \u201crecognizes the seriousness of the concerns raised regarding the Meredith family matter, as well as the broader public interest.\u201d The agency, he said in a statement, has \u201cdevoted significant investigative time, technical expertise, and regulatory resources to reviewing the situation and will continue to evaluate any new, relevant information as it becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Oklahoma lawmakers passed a bill introduced by the Merediths\u2019 state senator, Avery Frix, that would create a fund to compensate homeowners whose houses have been damaged by oil and gas pollution. While hopeful that the legislation will help them, Mitch noted that it requires the commission to confirm the presence of an old well, something the agency has yet to do at the Merediths\u2019 home.<\/p>\n

# Read More: Our Investigation Embed<\/p>\n

\u201c`html<\/p>\n

\"\u201dOilfield\"<\/p>\n

\n Read More: Our Investigation\n <\/p>\n

Oklahoma\u2019s Toxic Wastewater Crisis<\/p>\n

\n The Frontier and ProPublica have spent the last year investigating how oilfield wastewater pollution is threatening Oklahoma homes, farms and drinking water \u2014 and how regulators repeatedly failed to stop it.\n <\/p>\n

On Darlene Lane, the flow of contamination increased in late April and continues to seep into their neighbor\u2019s yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019ve begged for from the beginning is for them to help me contain it,\u201d Mitch said. \u201cThey have refused to do anything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nine months after they were forced to flee their dream home, the family of five is crammed into a 900-square-foot, two-bedroom bungalow on Mitch\u2019s parents\u2019 farm where the couple had lived as newlyweds. The girls share a bunk bed. The baby sleeps in Mitch and Kara\u2019s room.<\/p>\n

The Merediths are staying in a house that\u2019s less than half the size of their Darlene Lane house. \u201cIt\u2019s been tough on them,\u201d Kara said of her daughters. \u201cThey don\u2019t understand how we can\u2019t just go buy a new house. We have a mortgage on a house that\u2019s uninhabitable.\u201d Katie Campbell\/ProPublica<\/p>\n

The girls often ask to play with the neighbors they had to leave behind, along with many of their possessions. Their toys still line the shelves of their bedrooms in the house on Darlene Lane, awaiting their return. Wet clothes sat in the washer for months. Half-packed boxes are scattered around the floor, evidence of the family\u2019s panicked retreat last August.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The house is stuck in time, like a museum of the Merediths\u2019 old life.<\/p>\n

\"\u201d\u201d\"<\/a>
\n\"\u201d\u201d\"<\/a>Kara and the children avoid visiting the house on Darlene Lane because of the methane fumes and the emotional toll. Katie Campbell\/ProPublica
\n\"\u201d\u201d\"<\/a>
\n\"\u201d\u201d\"<\/a>\u201cWe\u2019re in a position where we can\u2019t move on,\u201d Mitch said. \u201cWe know we\u2019re going to lose the house. Everything we worked for is gone.\u201d Katie Campbell\/ProPublica<\/p>\n

Mitch took matters into his own hands, drilling a hole in the side of the house to drain the fluid. He dug a pit and installed a sump pump to divert the flow into an aerobic septic tank. As of late April, the cloudy contamination was still flowing out of the house. Katie Campbell\/ProPublica<\/p>\n

This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/www.readfrontier.org\/stories\/oily-sludge-is-flooding-their-dream-home-oklahoma-regulators-say-they-cant-help\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/www.readfrontier.org”>The Frontier<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.readfrontier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/cropped-favicon.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n

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