A study of water-quality degradation due to brine contamination was made in an area of about 1,700 square miles in east-central Oklahoma. The study area coincides, in part, with the outcrop of the Vamoosa-Ada aquifer of Pennsylvanian age.
Water samples collected from 180 wells completed in the Vamoosa-Ada aquifer, and at 168 sites from streams draining the Vamoosa-Ada aquifer show scattered occurrences of water-quality degradation by brine. Degradation of water quality by brine is indicated where: (1) Chloride concentration is equal to or greater than 400 milligrams per liter (2) bromide concentration is equal to or greater than 2 milligrams per liter (3) the ratio of lithium to sodium is equal to or less than 0.01, and the chloride concentration is equal to or greater than 400 milligrams per liter, or (4) the ratio of sodium plus chloride to dissolved solids is equal to or greater than 0.64. Other ratios of secondary importance that also indicate water-quality degradation by brine in the area are (1) a sodium/chloride ratio of about 0.46; (2) a sodium/bromide ratio of about 92; and (3) a bromide/chloride ratio of about 0.0048.