Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry Saltwater in our lake !

Saltwater from oil and gas operations was injected into a Texas disposal well near our 75 acre Louisiana lake. Unfortunately two abandoned oil wells near our property began flowing saltwater which ran into a creek that fills the lake. Now that it has been discovered, all hell has broken loose and Louisiana and Texas state agencies as well as the EPA are involved. The leaking wells have been plugged, but apparently chloride levels as high as 410 ppm were detected in our lake water. I have been told that such levels will cause no harm to our fish population or our lake. Can anyone tell me whether this is correct?

I concur I wouldn't worry too much about the salt. Salt is measured typically in aquaculture in parts per thousand which is a much higher salt content than parts per million. Some salt can, in fact, be beneficial to fish and many freshwater fish can tolerate brackish water which is higher than your 410 ppms.

Some aquaculturists are actually raising certain freshwater fish species with water drawn from saltwater wells.

However is there contamination from anything else as in oil remanants? Oil is very bad in itself.