One Texas Lake Is So Toxic, It’s Poisoning The Freshwater Around It

Lake Boehmer started "life" as an attempt at an a oil well, but things went bad really quickly.

What It Is

This oilfield "dry hole" was not so dry. While trying to drill for oil, sulfurous brine was hit instead. The brine made it's way to the surface forming a "lake", but wait, things get a little worse from there. The brine then is soaked up by the dry land, then redeposits itself into the ground water. This is not a good thing, at all.

It's Nasty

Would you like to make things a little worse? The lake, at three times the salinity of the ocean, smells like rotten eggs due to it's Sulphur content. It seems like a bad joke that you'd call this toxic pool a "lake" because you certainly wouldn't want to take a jet ski on it and any fish you might catch would probably be horrible creatures from another dimension (just kidding, this lake wouldn't support life).

Huge & Stinky

The "lake" takes up about 60 acres in Pecos County, generally stinkin' up the place. Are you thirsty? It would be better that you skip drinking any of this (thick) water which has 25 times the legal limit of sulfate in it. It is just a giant reservoir of what is basically poison.

Clean Up?

As to who is responsible for the care of this giant wet toxic mess, no one really seems to know. The name was from a former landowner that one could ever get ahold of. Officials also have no idea who responsible for cleaning up the site, so it appears it's just doomed to sit there, poisoning everything around it.