Oklahoma City sues oil company for stealing water intended for emergency drought relief

KOSU | By Graycen Wheeler
Published January 17, 2023 at 6:04 AM CST

Oklahoma City and the OKC Water Utilities Trust have filed a lawsuit against an oil company for stealing the city’s water and harming protected lands at the Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge.
The company, Revolution Resources, operates a well site at the Wiley Post Airport in Bethany, where they started drilling in the spring of 2022. They applied for permits to run temporary waterlines from the North Canadian River to the drilling site, but both Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board rejected them.

Now, the water utilities trust is suing because they say Revolution built those lines anyway. According to the lawsuit, the company installed three and a half miles of foot-wide pipe along a trail in Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge.

To do that, Revolution is accused of using bolt cutters to sneak onto the refuge, leaving behind construction waste and other trash, altering the landscape around the river, cutting down trees and even drilling wells on protected land. The suit says Revolution also may have discharged waste into the Hefner Canal.

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