FORT GIBSON — Mitch and Kara Meredith discovered dark, oily fluid surging through the foundation of their newly built Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, home in August 2025, prompting an investigation by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission into what state records suggest may be an improperly plugged oil well drilled in the 1940s. The flooding forced the family from the 2,500-square-foot modern farmhouse where they had lived for four years on Darlene Lane.

The incident occurred 40 days after the birth of the couple's third child, Fletcher, in July 2025. After their 7-year-old daughter reported water on the garage floor, Mitch Meredith found thick, black fluid covering the bathroom, bedroom, and closet floors. The sludge coated the family's arms, and their shoes displayed shiny rainbow patterns. After removing the bathtub from the wall, he saw the fluid gushing through the foundation.

The family called the fire department and spent the night vacuuming sludge and emptying buckets out the window. Kara Meredith took the three children to her grandmother's house. A strong smell of gas permeated the family's clothes, sheets, and mattresses, and many of their possessions were ruined. They have not returned to the home, moving four times in four months and at times paying both mortgage and rent.

Mitch Meredith drilled a hole into the concrete foundation to divert the sludge into a trench, and foul-smelling water poured out. The family asked the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to determine what happened and help clean up the pollution. In September, he argued with the commission about his case during a phone call.

In October, Jeremy Hodges, director of the commission's oil and gas division, met with the couple at the house. When his team inserted a gas reader into the hole in the bathroom floor, it showed gas concentrations at explosive levels, Hodges said. The local public works authority found gas levels that constituted a serious and immediate hazard. Hodges told the family the commission would likely have to tear down the house to locate and plug the well.

Subsequent sampling by the commission showed salt readings suggesting the presence of wastewater from oil and gas production, and the state's environmental quality department found elevated levels of heavy metals, including barium and bromide, commonly found in oil field wastewater. Samples Mitch Meredith collected and submitted to an environmental lab also indicated oil and gas pollution. The commission referred to the pollution in public statements as "water" and never explicitly stated it was a byproduct of oil and gas production.

"They wanted to act like it would go away," Mitch Meredith said. At the town hall in March, Matt Meredith asked Hodges whether he would live in the house. "So you're saying that you don't want to answer the question of whether you would actually live in that house?" Matt Meredith said. Hodges replied, "I'm not going to answer that."

In March, the commission held a town hall where community members questioned Hodges and other agency representatives about the Merediths' situation for two hours. About half of Oklahoma residents live within one mile of oil and gas wells.