Leander family to get water back after striking oil
A Leander family reached out to us last month after striking oil on their property. They were left with a big problem, contaminated water.
Once our story aired, many from our community offered to help. Now they're finally getting their clean water back.
It's out with the old and in with the new. The Ingram family is getting a new water well after their old one was filled with oil. They had contaminated water for a month and a half.
"You take for granted that the water coming in through the faucet is clean. When it's not, when it's really not clean, then there's a whole different level of impact," says Greg Ingram, Leander resident.
It has had an effect on their pipes and all the appliances connected to them - from their hot water heaters, to their washing machine. They reached out to FOX 7 On Your Side after not getting any answers as to why this was happening and how to fix it.
"The exposure from your story reached further than we imagined. Bee Cave Drilling reached out to us. We would not have found them," says Ingram.
Bee Cave Drilling has dealt with cases like this hundreds of times. They are even calling the north side of Leander to the south side of Liberty Hill, the epicenter of problems in Central Texas. After seeing our story, they contacted the Ingram family with a solution.
"What we've done differently is that we have isolated this top zone and have not let the production zone produce any water for us. We're only producing the bottom forty feet of the aquifer. That limits the chance of any oil migrating down and getting into our well," says Jim Blair, president, Bee Cave Drilling.
In addition to that, they are sealing the outside of the casing with cement-like material. A process that began Saturday and will wrap up this week.
"They gave us comfort, they gave us hope. They said, 'this is something that we can remedy. Your new well will not have this problem,'" says Ingram.
Other help has come from neighbors, including Susan Amos who allowed the family to connect to their water.
"They've been putting it in their little trailer and doing their best. It's been working out okay," says Susan Amos, neighbor.
During the past month and a half, the Ingram family learned to keep their heads above water. It's for that reason, they're getting their water back.
"Probably take as many showers as we can take, wash as many clothes, we may get out and just take the water hose and go crazy," says Ingram.
Bee Cave Drilling says people should become educated about this type of problem because it's happening more often. In some cases, they have been able to rescue the wells. For more information, head to beecavedrilling.com.