WATFORD CITY, N.D. — Highly concentrated saltwater was released onto an oil well site near Watford City on Sunday, Jan. 24, in what the operator and state regulators attributed to an act of vandalism.

Abraxas Petroleum Corporation, a Texas company, said in a report to North Dakota regulators that early Sunday morning someone opened the valves on several of their load lines, causing an estimated 18,300 gallons of brine water to spill onto the well pad. The operator reported that they contacted the McKenzie County Sheriff's Office upon discovery of the spill on Monday.

The contaminant was contained to the well site, and at the time of reporting nearly all of the fluid had been recovered using vacuum trucks.

A state inspector has visited the location of the spill and is monitoring additional clean-up, according to a news release Monday from the Oil and Gas Division.

No one in the McKenzie County Sheriff's Office was immediately available to address the incident on Monday evening.

Brine, or produced water, is a highly saturated saltwater that comes up in large volumes from oil and gas wells in the Bakken. The waste stream is typically injected back into the ground at designated disposal sites but can render agricultural land infertile when spilled.