Recycling Project

"In this diversity action, plaintiff-appellant Young sought an injunction and damages or an accounting for the defendants’ actions in forcibly removing valuable minerals from beneath his land by means of injection and production wells on surrounding property. The defendants held mineral leases on approximately 16,000 acres of land overlying the “Smackover Limestone Formation” in Columbia County, Arkansas. Their salt-water recycling operation brought salt water brine from a depth of 8,000 feet to the surface by means of production wells. Valuable bromine was extracted from the brine, and the debrominated water was then injected back into the ground through injection wells in a process which forced the subterranean brine toward the production wells. Young’s land, consisting of approximately 180 acres, was surrounded by land controlled by the defendants. The District Court found that the injection of debrominated waters from the defendants’ plant through well numbered 13, under high pressure, displaced the brine waters in the formation underlying Young’s lands, forcing it to move toward, and eventually produce through wells numbered 18 and 23. The salt water, by means of this artificially induced movement beneath Young’s lands, was carried to the processing plant."