Oil Pump Jacks & Your Property: What You Need to Know
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What would it take to get an oil pump jack of your own and start drilling for oil? First, you would need to make sure you have mineral rights to the land. Many landowners hold only the surface rights for a plot of land, while someone else owns or has the lease for mineral rights on that same property. While a person with surface rights can typically build a house, perhaps run a ranch, or drill a water well on that property, it’s the party with mineral rights who has a claim to what’s beneath the land.
For someone who does hold the mineral rights, investing in an oil pump jack unit would cost approximately $4,000 to $20,000, plus they would have to find a way to connect to a pipeline or have storage tanks, as well as run power lines to the oil pump jack. In order for the oil pump jack to turn a profit, you would need to be certain that you’re sitting on a sizable enough oil reservoir, and you would need to have a buyer lined up. With fluctuating markets, it would still be tough for a single operator to keep up with maintaining expensive drilling machinery and making it worth all this investment.
Even if all those logistics line up, you would still need to make sure you’ve understood and planned for all the risks involved, but at least you would have a say in how things pan out. Many other people don’t get to decide if they live next to or close to an oil pump jack. Whether you have an oil pump jack drilling just behind your backyard or next to your kid’s school, there has been a considerable amount of research on the health and environmental risks you could be facing.
General Safety Risks of Oil Pump Jacks
Outside of occupational accidents and exposure-related illnesses, an oil pump jack presents certain safety risks simply by virtue of it being dangerous machinery that is out in the open. Worse still, many of existing oil pump jacks have been abandoned without gates or signs to keep people and animals away.
Oil pump jacks pose many hazards, including but not limited to:
- Oil pump jacks can emit toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a poisonous substance that is both invisible and highly flammable. Hydrogen sulfide fumes can cause severe burns and can be fatal to animals and people alike.
- Methane, a greenhouse gas that you can’t smell or see, is often present at oil pump jacks. In addition to polluting the environment, it can trigger seizures, cause loss of consciousness, and pose other serious health risks.
- Accidents involving the machinery itself, including fall risks, crushing hazards (by the entire pump jack itself or pieces of its equipment), caught-in accidents, and electrical shock/electrocution hazards.
- The land around an oil pump jack may be unstable. Often, waste products and leaks combine to form slush pits, which can not only lead to heightened fall risks and burn hazards but also lead to groundwater and/or soil contamination.
These are not just hypotheticals. For instance, in Oklahoma in 2009, a 17-year-old and his friend climbed a fence, turned on an oil pump jack, and tried to ride the equipment. But as the machine moved, the teen's arm became trapped and was crushed. His friend flagged down a taxi driver, who was able to turn off the pump and call emergency services for help. While this saved the teen’s life, his arm could not be saved and was ultimately amputated.
In another case that occurred in Oklahoma in 2015, a child was exploring storage tanks close to where he lived. Tragically, after becoming stuck inside a tank, he suffocated from the toxic gases.
Concerns for Landowners with Oil Pump Jacks on Their Property
Many landowners don’t have a say about whether oil drilling is conducted on their property, much less in how these operations are carried out. This is because, while landowners have surface rights to the property, mineral rights, or the rights to what’s below the surface, are usually held by another individual or corporation. If the company with mineral rights drills haphazardly, or if they abandon a well and leave it unplugged, a landowner can be left to deal with a host of problems, including potential accidents, injury risks, and contaminated land. These are problems that landowners did nothing to create and, worse, have few options to address.
Even if an oil pump jack is idle and no longer actively drilling, a leaking oil well can:
- Contaminate drinking water
- Release harmful gases, such as methane
- Create deep holes, sinkholes, or pools of water that present fall risks for people and animals
- Unleash saltwater that destroys plant life, devastating acres of land
If landowners have cattle that graze near these oil pump jacks, or other animals that are regularly in the vicinity, they can face a range of health risks and issues. Whether it’s due to contaminated grassland, polluted water, breathing in toxic vapors, wildlife and livestock can be exposed to crude oil and oil field wastes.
Mismanaged oil fields, along with the resulting petroleum poisoning and other harmful exposures, can mean animals suffer from:
- Damaged kidneys, liver, and/or blood vessels
- Skin lesions and cracked hides
- Anemia
- Serious bloating
- Fatigue
- Miscarriages
- Sterility
- Death
The dangers of these toxic gases are not just a threat to animals, of course. Toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide, arsenic, benzene, and methane cause loss of consciousness, seizures, weakness, dizziness, vomiting, and other health problems.
Why Oil Wells Stay Unplugged
There are easily hundreds of thousands of unplugged wells throughout the country; some estimates say the number of unplugged oil wells nationwide could be upwards of 3 million. Some of these wells have been abandoned for more than 100 years, and many are leaching into groundwater and contaminating air while sitting undocumented. So, why are these wells just sitting there? Unsurprisingly, it often comes down to money.
It can cost upwards of $100,000 to plug an oil well and decommission it, which many companies decide isn’t worthwhile. Others simply do the job very poorly and move on. Today, many unplugged wells have been abandoned by companies that no longer exist, so there is no clear party responsible for properly decommissioning a well. These unplugged, abandoned wells with no ownership are known as “orphaned” wells.
That leaves landowners with limited options when it comes to dealing with an oil pump jack and/or oil well that’s causing problems. To make matters worse, landowners often don’t have the funds to plug oil wells themselves. This is especially true when a property has multiple abandoned and unplugged wells. Landowners may be told they have no better option than somehow relying on the state and federal government to enforce regulations and plug up wells, but this often comes with its own set of problems.
By 2022, $4.7 billion had been granted by the federal government to go toward plugging orphan wells, with about $560 million of that funding already split between 24 states.
While that is a nice start, the problem of abandoned oil pump jacks and wells is still an enormous undertaking, especially in:
In Texas (the lead producer of oil in the U.S.), the Railroad Commission is responsible for plugging abandoned wells, but the organization has limited resources. They also grant countless extensions to operators who delay the decommissioning of their inactive wells.
The RRC slowly works its way through a priority list to ostensibly resolve the most dangerous unplugged wells, but to this day, it has left many high-risk wells untouched. Notably, the RRC will only plug up wells that have definitive proof of having been intended for oil drilling. Those in power at the Texas RRC have been known to ally with oil and gas businesses to shield them from scrutiny. The RRC also doesn’t have the authority to enforce safety codes over powerlines, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas can’t oversee oilfield power lines.
Texas is far and away the highest producer of oil in U.S., yet the decommissioning of abandoned wells remains a serious problem. In other states, the challenges can be even greater, highlighting just some of the ways in which there are serious gaps in regulations and enforcement of oil pump jacks and oil wells, even when the safety of communities is at stake.
Ultimately, it’s an oil and gas operator’s responsibility to abide by state, federal, and common-sense rules to keep everybody safe, from workers to residents and wildlife. But companies have regularly determined that it’s not worth using their resources to send inspectors to remote wells or to plug up wells once the oil pump jacks have finished their purpose.
Electrical Safety Risks of Oil Drilling on Your Land
The power lines that connect to oil pump jacks often lie in remote areas, where companies rarely bother to send inspectors or other personnel to ensure the safety of such wiring. Faulty power lines running to and from oil pump jacks have been known to electrocute cattle and other livestock, as well as wildlife, but the true dangers of poorly maintained wiring are much more far-reaching. For example, in February of 2024, faulty power lines were blamed for starting the biggest fire in Texas history and the second-largest in the entire U.S. The wildfire, which raged across the Texas Panhandle, killed three people and about 15,000 cattle, destroyed over 500 structures, and burned more than 1.2 million acres of land.
While there are now laws in Texas that demand oilfield companies set up and maintain power lines that are up to code, there is no one designated to enforce this code, nor are there set penalties for any violations. That means the outstanding risks of faulty electrical wiring for oil drilling were never adequately addressed. If a Texas landowner wants to address dangerous wires running through their property, they may have to sue the oil and gas companies to get them to perform necessary repairs and maintenance, forcing the landowner to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees just to bring those companies to court and get their operations up to code.
Environmental & Community Health Risks of Oil Pump Jacks
To be clear, the above hazards can apply to abandoned wells and active wells alike. An estimated 9 million Americans are affected by abandoned oil wells, and millions more live in close proximity to oil pump jacks that are still actively drilling. In either circumstance, many of these people aren’t landowners with oil pump jacks or wells on their properties, but they face property damage and health risks all the same.
Whether it’s a small neighborhood that’s near a handful of oil pump jacks in an otherwise quiet and remote area, or it’s in the more densely populated cities and close to schools, oil drilling can introduce a devastating range of dangerous and even carcinogenic chemicals.
Regular proximity to an active oil pump jack potentially means risks of exposure to:
- Hydrogen sulfide
- Nitrogen oxide
- Formaldehyde
- Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- Hydrochloric acid
- And more
For example, in California, in 2020 there were 7.37 million people who live or go to school within a mile of oil drilling. This means that the chemicals listed above had been found in the air and groundwater of highly populous communities.
Proximity to an active oil pump jack has been connected to higher rates of:
- Severe nose bleeds
- Migraines
- Increased cancer and heart disease rates
- Asthma and other breathing issues
- Contaminated drinking water
- Preterm births and birth defects
Being within a mile of an active oil well also increases the risk of being affected by explosions at nearby facilities. What’s more, many of these pump jacks and oil wells are squarely located in areas that are at high risk for wildfires.
This is not just an issue for densely packed cities in California. Close proximity to toxic exposure and enhanced wildfire risks from oil drilling also affects a range of populations across Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. A study from the journal One Earth found that in 2024, nearly 3 million Americans lived within 3,200 feet of oil pump jacks and oil wells that lie in the path of projected future wildfires. This means that millions of people live not only with serious toxic exposure risks, but also live at risk of explosions, fires, and gas leaks.
"Setback" laws call for oil wells to be more distanced from populated areas, at least a mile away from residences and schools. There is also a push to reduce drilling efforts in wildfire risk areas, as well as for better monitoring of oil and gas leaks. In the meantime, and unless something significant changes in regulations and enforcement, these serious and far-reaching risks loom over millions of Americans.
What Can Be Done About Oil Pump Jacks Near You?
If oil and gas operators or government agencies fail to ensure safe practices when drilling for oil, leading to property damage or adverse health effects, you could have legal recourse. And, when oil companies and regulatory officials fail their communities when it comes to abandoned wells, you may also be able to take legal action.
Our oilfield accident attorneys and toxic exposure lawyers have decades of experience holding negligent parties responsible for the preventable harm they have caused. Arnold & Itkin has a long history of going after oil and gas companies and a proven track record of success. When we need to find answers for our clients and demand that negligent companies change their ways, we know how to fight for and secure justice for our clients. No matter what.
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