CFROG Blatantly Misrepresents USGS Findings in Oxnard

Mar. 21, 2019

Last week, activists posted “Breaking News!” regarding “evidence of groundwater well contamination by oil operations” in the Oxnard Oil Field. Citing a “landmark study” completed by experts with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the activists with Citizens for Responsible Oil and Gas (CFROG) claimed thermogenic gases had contaminated nearby water wells, and oil operations were to blame.

However, that’s actually not at all what the USGS scientists found. As Celia Z. Rosecrans, the USGS study author, stated in the report: “The results of our sampling found we had no evidence or no detections of petroleum hydrocarbons, inorganic constituents, or isotopes that indicate that we had oil field water mixing with the groundwater overlying the oil field.”

Furthermore, while the USGS did report that thermogenic gases had been detected in deep water wells, their study did not conclude that oil field activity was the cause. Rosecrans explained that detections of naturally-occurring thermogenic gases in deep groundwater could have resulted from natural vertical migration through the geologic formation, or through wells.

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