Kara and Mitch Meredith saved for years to purchase a custom home in Kara’s hometown of Fort Gibson, about 56 miles southeast of Tulsa. The white farmhouse-style house was built in 2021, and the family moved in shortly after.
In August 2025, five weeks after their third child was born and two days after a nearby minor earthquake, a blackish-gray substance began seeping up into their primary bathroom.
The fluid appeared to resemble oil, and the family worried about the possibility of an abandoned well causing the leak. To avoid the pollution, the Merediths moved out of their home and have been living elsewhere for seven months.
The family contacted the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state agency responsible for abandoned oil and gas wells. Commission records show the liquid, which it refers to as water, was flowing at about two gallons per minute on Aug. 27.
The agency’s oil and gas division said it has conducted sampling, electromagnetic imaging and reviewed historical aerial photos and drilling records since the leak began. Personnel visited the property 16 times between August and February.
The commission’s sampling shows salt from the liquid is consistent with oil field brine, a byproduct of oil and gas production.
As of April 1, the regulators say they have not officially determined the fluid’s source. According to the commission, there are no documented wells under the Merediths’ home. One capped well is at least 400 feet away and was found to be dry in the 1940s.
An aerial photo from 1952 shows what the Merediths’ lawyer, Jana Knott, described as a ground disturbance close to where the home now stands.
The state is estimated to have more than 61,000 undocumented oil and gas wells left over by its nearly 130-year drilling history. Whether the Merediths’ home was built on top of one is still unanswered.
In a March 13 news release, the commission suggested a previously dammed lake and nearby ponds “may indicate the potential for naturally occurring groundwater conditions, including the possibility of an artesian source.”
On March 25, the commission held a public meeting at the Muskogee Civic Center with staff who have worked on the investigation. Dozens of community members and neighbors attended. Jim Marshall, director of administration, told the crowd the agency is limited in what it can do to help the Merediths.
“The problem is that the water source most likely is under the foundation of the home,” he said. “For us to go through the process of plugging the well, assuming it is a well, we would have to have access to it, so we'd have to penetrate the foundation or have the home removed, including the foundation, in order to plug the well.”
The Merediths filed a lawsuit against their home insurance company for a claim denial and against the builder. Still, the family has asked the commission to help them contain and manage the issue.
During the meeting, the commission presented the crowd with its investigation records. Marshall acknowledged the uncertainty of abandoned oil and gas wells across the state, saying some in the audience could own homes sitting on top of unregistered wells.
“None of us want to experience what the Merediths have experienced,” he said. “Our sympathies lie with this family. We have demonstrated that through comprehensive examination to the point that we've run up to the limitation of our abilities.”
During an audience question-and-answer session, Mitch Meredith’s father, Ron Meredith, spoke to the commission’s Oil and Gas Division Director, Jeremy Hodges, about an interaction at the house last fall.
“If you’re trying to think that that is water, pond, or whatever, it cannot force that much pressure to go through that concrete,” Meredith said. “Me and my brother, we fought at that for all weekend, trying to preserve the house.”
Meredith also asked Hodges if he recalled saying he knew what the fluid was within 15 minutes. Hodges replied, “Yes.”
StateImpact requested an interview with Hodges, but was told he was unavailable. In a March 19 news release, he said the agency took exhaustive efforts to determine the source of the fluid.
“This is not a case of inaction — the OCC has fully exercised every available authority and resource,” he said.
After the public meeting, the Merediths still had unanswered questions.
“ I feel like tonight was their roundabout way of saying that it is oil and gas, without saying it is oil and gas,” Kara Meredith said.
Brandy Wreath, former director of administration, was still working for the commission when the family first approached the agency about the fluid. Corporation Commissioners terminated Wreath in December without a public explanation. He said the Merediths’ case, along with other statewide oil and gas emergencies, kept him up at night.
“All of these are disgusting, scary, environmental things that, in my opinion, some were perpetrated by bad people, and some were just bad practices — we didn't know better,” he said. “This one, I think, is just from practice, we didn't know better.”
Wreath said he is speaking with legislators, including Sen. Avery Frix, R-Muskogee, who authored a bill intended to help the Merediths and similar cases in the future. But he said he wished he knew his time working at the commission would be cut short.
“If I could go back, I would have at least pushed it, probably would have lost my job a little sooner, who knows?” Wreath asked. “I think that at least now we have Avery — I've worked with him a long time. He's a go-getter, and he will push this thing until it gets done.”
“So, there's a lot of hope,” he said.
Senate Bill 1319 would require the commission to establish a process of remediation for Oklahomans “whose residences have become contaminated by brine, oil or other substances within the Corporation Commission's jurisdiction.” The bill would create a revolving fund for remediation assistance. If the commission decides purchasing the home is necessary, the Commissioners of the Land Office would acquire the home at its fair market value.
Once the residence is removed, the Corporation Commission could confirm the well and plug it.
The bill passed the Senate floor March 25, the same night as the public meeting, and is now in the House. Rep. Chris Sneed, R-Fort Gibson, co-authored the legislation.
“No family should have to go through such an experience alone or without support from the state regulatory agency,” Frix said in a news release.
The Merediths have been involved in the legislative process, but they worry the bill could give too much power to the commission. Kara has been in contact with Frix about her unease with the legislation.
“If they're not willing to claim jurisdiction on my case, I don't feel really confident on how, first of all, the bill would help me, and second of all, I don't feel confident on how it would help others moving forward because I have witnessed them not wanting to be responsible for something,” she said.
Hall said Corporation Commissioner Kim David has also been involved in discussions about the legislation. In its March 19 news release, the agency wrote David recused herself from any future adjudicatory role to allow her to have a more active role in the lawmaking process.
At the Muskogee meeting, the Merediths said they first heard from David two weeks prior.
In an email, StateImpact asked the commission if it would claim jurisdiction over the Merediths’ case and use the funds if the bill were in effect today. A spokesperson said the agency could not comment on pending legislation.
Another solution, floated by lawyer Jana Knott, would come from the governor’s office. Gov. Kevin Stitt declared an environmental emergency in Caddo County last fall after a disposal well caused a saltwater purge, contaminating nearby water. Several cows and some wildlife were reported to have died as a result.
The environmental emergency triggered funds for the Corporation Commission to remediate the site. Asked whether the state could issue a similar response to the Merediths’ case, press secretary Tevis Hillis said there are no emergency funds available for their request.
“The governor is thinking of the family during this difficult time,” she said.
What the Merediths suspect is an oil purge beneath their house wouldn’t be the first example of a well posing safety risks to homeowners. In 2012, a 71-year-old Tulsa woman was displaced after a well beneath her home caused her walls to fill with natural gas and catch on fire, according to the Journal Record.
In January 2026, Blanchard residents were evacuated from their homes after an oil well blew out, causing a gas leak.
Former Corporation Commission spokesperson Matt Skinner told StateImpact last year that as more housing developments are established, more wells are being discovered.
“And as they grow, they're running into old abandoned wells, and they are not plugged, or they may have been plugged, but they haven't been plugged properly because they were plugged a hundred years ago when no one knew how to do it,” he said.
While the Merediths search for solutions, they’re living temporarily in a small home owned by family members. Even if their property is fixed and deemed safe, Kara said she doesn’t see a future back at the house.
“I wouldn't move my family back into that home, as hard as that is to say,” Kara said. “We miss our home, but we also know it's dangerous and we also know that God got us out of there. We had just had a baby, I had a five-week-old at home.”
“When it happened, I feel like it was like God was getting us out of there, before something really bad happened.”
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