When you live in the patch, bad water and bad air​ is a fact of life. Above any commercially viable hydrocarbon reservoir are shallower ones that gradually leak out. In the Permian basin, for example, there are water wells that were drilled over 100 years ago, before any oil well had been drilled in Texas, and the water had enough methane in it to be flammable.

The town of Sweetwater, Texas got its name from being the 1st good water found near the Permian basin.