CORPORATION COMMISSION JURISDICTION TO OKDER REMEDIATION OF SURFACE AND SUBSURFACE POLLUTION Is NOT EXCLUSIVE

摘要

In Meinders v. Johnson, 2006 OK CIV APP 35, 134 P.3d 858 (Okla. Civ. App. 2006), the Plaintiff surface owner sued oil and gas working interest owners and operators in state district court for damages and injunctive relief arising out of the condition of the surface and the subsurface of the land as a result of oil and gas operations extending back to the 1920s. As a result of years of operations, the land had become dotted with many abandoned and unplugged wells, abandoned equipment, visible signs of surface pollution from brine and mineral spills, and severe erosion, much of which originated with prior operators. The plaintiff sought damages for surface and subsurface pollution and injunctive relief to compel clean-up and remediation of surface and subsurface pollution. The plaintiff later dropped his damage claims and pursued only injunctive relief. The trial court determined that the defendants created or maintained a continuing public nuisance on the plaintiff's property and directed various clean-up measures including plugging of abandoned wells, the recasing of inadequately cased wells to 50 feet below treatable water or the plugging of those wells, cessation of salt water injection operations without an Oklahoma Corporation Commission permit, restoration of the surface of polluted areas to a condition free of erosion with soil quality and chemical composition that will maintain native grasses, and the removal and disposition of abandoned pipe and equipment.