Nick Bowlin covers oil and gas in Oklahoma for ProPublica and The Frontier, as part of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. He has been a contributing writer and editor for High Country News, based in a small town on Colorado’s Western Slope where he wrote about oil, gas and mining industries; public lands; and economics and labor in the Mountain West. His freelance work appeared in Harper’s, The Guardian, ProPublica, The Drift, The Nation, Vox, Politico Magazine, Civil Eats, Montana Free Press and Outside Magazine, among others.
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To protect its drinking water, this city has to appeal to the oil regulators that put it at risk
Oklahoma restricts oil field wastewater injection within a half-mile of public water wells to protect against pollution. Regulators have let companies do it anyway. Officials are taking on the oil industry by calling for additional protections against oil field wastewater injection.
July 1, 2026
