Monday, February 16, 2026 • Warm, windy, highs in the low-70s. ⛅

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By Nick Bowlin, The Frontier
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This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with The Frontier. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

In the summer of 2022, months after Tammy Boarman and her husband, Chris, moved into their newly built “forever home” 30 miles from Oklahoma City, the plants in their yard began to turn yellow. The shrubs wilted, though Tammy watered them often. And the couple began to notice a salty taste in their drinking water.

The water came from a private well, drilled the year before, and they hoped that the bad taste would fade with time and with the help of a water softener.

But the problem grew worse. Their ice maker expelled large clumps of wet salt, which, when rubbed, dissolved into an oily, foul-smelling substance.

The couple knew that some oil and gas extraction took place nearby. Down dirt roads and behind stands of oak trees in their neighborhood, pump jacks nodded up and down, pulling up oil. This is a common sight in Oklahoma. Several studies estimate that about half the state’s residents live within a mile of oil and gas wells.

By the following summer, Tammy and Chris Boarman had been in touch with the state agency overseeing private water wells and began to fear these nearby oil operations had tainted their water, which they had largely stopped drinking after developing sores in their mouths. The couple submitted a complaint to the oil division of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry and is responsible for addressing related pollution.

When Tammy Boarman first contacted oil regulators, she was hopeful state officials would find the source of the pollution and clean it up. For the next two years, the state repeatedly tested the Boarmans’ water for contaminants and found salt concentrations that made the water undrinkable and, at one point, toxic metals at levels high enough to endanger human health — strong signs of oil field wastewater pollution, according to agency testing.

But regulators repeatedly delayed or failed to conduct other tests recommended by the agency’s own employees to locate the pollution source, according to internal agency documents obtained by The Frontier and ProPublica through public records requests.

Despite Boarman’s pleas to regulators to do more, the agency would ultimately dismiss its earlier findings pointing to oil and gas pollution and close the couple’s case, leaving basic questions about the origins of the problem unanswered.

“For the longest time, we were so naive to everything,” Boarman said. “We thought things were going to get better.”

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Editor’s note: Links requiring subscriptions have an *.

Editor’s note: Links requiring subscriptions have an *.

A hand-curated list of the best journalism from across the state:

• Oklahoma lawmakers will face ‘challenging budget year’ as demand for services grows (Oklahoma Voice)

• Primer on state budget and taxes as legislative session begins (KGOU)

• What Devon, Expand Energy executives moving to Houston means for Oklahoma’s economy (News 9)

• Criminal justice is a top issue in state legislatures this year (Oklahoma Voice)

• On the rolling plains of Oklahoma, a deadly prison. 4 years, 21 homicides (The Oklahoman)*

• Oklahoma City expands mental health crisis response with new grant (KFOR)

• D.C. Digest: Homeland Security holdup riles Cole (Tulsa World)*

• Murder charges re-filed in Tulsa County in 2010 road rage incident (News On 6)

• Man surrenders to OKC police after barricading himself in home with 3 children (KOCO)

• McClain County inmate arrested in Pauls Valley after escape, crash, carjacking (News 9)

• Vehicle found underwater at Guthrie Lake closes boat ramp (KOCO)

• More Ardmore refinery fire victims identified (KTEN)

• Ponca City man now charged in eight felony cases as home repair fraud case is filed (Kay News Cow)

• Cheat Sheet: 2026 Osage Nation principal chief primary election (NonDoc)

• Oklahoma can now access millions from its Rural Health Transformation Program award (StateImpact Oklahoma)

• Safe Move Tulsa funding set to run out in late summer, city says (Tulsa World)*

• Tulsans prepare to ring in Lunar New Year with line dancing, sticky rice cakes and more (Tulsa Flyer)

• East Tulsa speech therapist aims to break myths around raising bilingual children (Tulsa Flyer)

• Popcorn machine fire at OU’s Lloyd Noble Center briefly delays basketball game (News 9)

In this week’s Oklahoma Memo Podcast, congressional candidate John Croisant (D–District 1) sharply criticized what he called “grift and corruption” at the federal level, arguing that foreign financial relationships tied to former President Donald Trump raise serious national security concerns.

Croisant pointed to cryptocurrency ventures, foreign investments, and Middle East business dealings involving the Trump family as examples of what he described as conflicts of interest. He questioned whether Congress has done enough to investigate or regulate financial entanglements between elected officials and foreign governments.

“The question is whether public office is being used for public service — or personal enrichment,” Croisant said during the conversation.

The discussion also broadened to congressional ethics more generally. Croisant argued for banning stock trading by members of Congress, imposing term limits, ending corporate political action committee contributions, and establishing enforceable ethics rules for the U.S. Supreme Court.

If you’re a decision maker at your company, you need to be on the bleeding edge of, well, everything. But before you go signing up for seminars, conferences, lunch ‘n learns, and all that jazz, just know there’s a far better (and simpler) way: Subscribing to The Deep View.

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