The Deadly Reality Behind Landman’s H2S Leak: Fact vs. Fiction in Season 2

When Landman Season 2 sent a group of hunters into a fatal hydrogen sulfide cloud, the scene felt almost unreal. The men walked toward an old tank, saw dead feral hogs on the ground, and then simply started dropping. By the time M‑Tex employees arrived, the hunters were already gone, and the workers’ own gas monitors were screaming.

Fans have been asking two blunt questions ever since Season 2, Episode 3 (“Almost a Home”) hit on November 30, 2025:

“What is H₂S gas?” and “How dangerous is hydrogen sulfide, really?”

The short answer is that the show is dramatized, but the threat is not. The details in that sequence track closely with real science and with a disturbing run of fatal incidents in Texas and across the country.

Below, we unpack what happened on screen, how hydrogen sulfide behaves in the real world, and why hunters, landmen, and anyone working around oil, water, or waste should treat this gas with respect.

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The Landman H₂S scene: hunters, a tank, and a wind shift

Episode 3 opens in familiar West Texas territory. A hunting party moves through scrub near an older oil site. They notice wild boar carcasses on the ground and spot an abandoned truck close to a weathered tank.

As recap writers have outlined, one hunter gets close, starts coughing, and suddenly collapses. His friends rush in to help and also go down in quick succession. The camera does not show smoke or mist, because in reality hydrogen sulfide is colorless. The danger is in the air, not in anything you can see.

Later in the hour, several M‑Tex workers arrive to check the well and tank:

• Dale, Boss, Ben, Jerrell, and Russ climb onto the tank to inspect it.
• From the top, Jerrell spots the hunters’ truck and bodies nearby.
• The crew walks over and finds all the hunters dead.

Then the wind turns.

A gust carries hydrogen sulfide toward the M‑Tex team. Their personal H₂S monitors start alarming. Within moments, several men complain of burning eyes, nausea, vomiting, and intense headaches as they try to get clear. Dale radios in an “H2S leak” and calls for hazmat and EMS. Eventually, helicopters evacuate the crew. In the show, Jerrell spends one night in the hospital, but the workers all survive. The hunters do not.

It makes for a gripping sequence. It is also rooted in how hydrogen sulfide behaves in oilfields, sewers, cisterns, and barns across the country.

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What is H₂S gas, in plain English?

Hydrogen sulfide is a simple, nasty molecule: two hydrogen atoms and one sulfur atom, formula H₂S. It is a naturally occurring gas that forms when organic material rots without oxygen. That can happen in manure pits, sewers, septic tanks, lagoons, stagnant cisterns, and in some geologic formations underground.

Regulators and toxicologists classify H₂S as a chemical asphyxiant. It does not smother you by pushing out oxygen like nitrogen does. Instead, it interferes with how your cells use oxygen, in a way similar to cyanide. The nervous system and lungs take most of the damage.

Several properties matter for anyone walking a lease road or creeping toward a tank in the dark:

• Colorless: You cannot see hydrogen sulfide in the air.
• Smell at low levels: At tiny concentrations, often around 0.01 to 0.05 parts per million (ppm), many people notice a “rotten egg” odor.
• Smell disappears at high levels: At dangerous concentrations, roughly 100 ppm and above, the gas can paralyze your sense of smell. The odor vanishes even as the risk climbs.
• Heavier than air: H₂S is denser than normal air. It tends to hug the ground, settle in low spots, and collect in pits, tanks, manholes, and enclosed barns.
• Extremely flammable: OSHA data puts its flammable range between about 4.3 and 45 percent by volume in air.

For oil and gas, hydrogen sulfide shows up in “sour” crude, some natural gas, and in produced water and wastewater tanks. It is also common in industries like paper mills, tanneries, and some food processing, but the Permian Basin story centers on wells, tanks, and disposal sites.

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How dangerous is hydrogen sulfide?

To understand the risk in that Landman scene, you have to look at actual exposure numbers. U.S. agencies have drawn some clear lines.

Workplace limits

• OSHA’s legal limit for workers is a ceiling of 20 ppm, with a single 10‑minute peak up to 50 ppm allowed per 8‑hour shift.
• NIOSH, the federal research arm, calls 100 ppm “Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health” (IDLH).

Those are regulations. Toxicology reviews and OSHA guidance fill in what people actually feel at different levels:

• 0.008 — 0.05 ppm: Many people can smell H₂S. It is annoying but not dangerous at that range.
• 5 — 50 ppm: Eye, nose, and throat irritation are common, with headaches and dizziness possible if exposure lasts.
• 100 — 150 ppm: The classic “rotten egg” smell disappears. Nerves in your nose fatigue or become paralyzed. You are now in a danger zone without a warning odor.
• 200 — 300 ppm: Breathing becomes painful. Prolonged exposure can lead to fluid in the lungs.
• 500 — 700 ppm: Collapse (“knockdown”) within minutes is common. Serious eye damage and death within 30 to 60 minutes can follow.
• 700 — 1,000 ppm: One or two breaths may trigger loss of consciousness, followed by breathing failure. Death can occur within minutes.
• Above 1,000 ppm: Respiratory arrest and death can be almost instantaneous without rapid rescue and oxygen.

This is why safety bulletins tell workers not to trust their nose. At concentrations that kill quickly, your sense of smell often drops out early in the exposure. You may think the danger has passed when it has actually spiked.

The Landman hunters walked into an invisible cloud, saw a few carcasses, and likely got a breath or two of very high concentration gas. That pattern is documented in real accident reports.

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Real-world tragedies that look a lot like Landman

The hunters in Episode 3 are fictional. Their story is not unique.

A lethal cloud near Denver City, 1975

On February 2, 1975, a sour gas well near Denver City, Texas, developed a rupture. Hydrogen sulfide poured from a failed connection. A nearby family, the Pattons, tried to evacuate their home. Eight family members died. An oilfield worker responding to the alarm also succumbed.

The disaster pushed the Texas Railroad Commission to tighten its hydrogen sulfide rule, known as Rule 36. Among other steps, it requires operators in high‑H₂S areas to:

• Test for hydrogen sulfide.
• Post warning signs.
• Train employees on H₂S hazards.
• Prepare emergency response plans and, in some cases, monitor for leaks.

Even with that framework in place for decades, fatal releases kept coming.

Odessa, 2019: a worker and his wife

On October 26, 2019, Aghorn Operating employee Jacob Dean went to check a produced‑water pump at a facility in Odessa. The pump malfunctioned, and hydrogen sulfide‑laden water released gas into the area. Dean was overcome and died at the site.

His wife, Natalee, drove out to look for him after he stopped answering calls. She was also fatally exposed.

Federal investigators later found that the H₂S alert system at the site did not function and that safety practices were weak. In April 2025, a court fined Aghorn $1 million and contractor Kodiak Roustabout $400,000. An Aghorn executive, Trent Day, received a five‑month prison sentence under the Clean Air Act.

The pattern from old manure pit cases repeated itself. The first victim fell. The rescuer became a second victim.

Bastrop County hog hunters, 2023

In August 2023, three hog hunters from Florida died while trying to rescue a dog near Austin. Their hunt took them into a cornfield in Bastrop County. The dog fell into an uncovered cistern, roughly 4 feet wide and about 8 feet deep, with stagnant water at the bottom.

One man climbed in, apparently to save the dog. When he did not reappear, the others removed boots and clothing and followed. None of them came back out alive.

The local sheriff later said investigators believed hydrogen sulfide had built up in the cistern from decomposing organic matter and possibly dead animals. The gas likely knocked the men unconscious quickly. All three, and the dog, were later pulled from the bottom.

There was no active well in this case. The setup, however, mirrors the fear behind the Landman scene: hunters, an innocent‑looking opening in the ground, and a pocket of lethal gas waiting below.

A Colorado dairy barn, 2024

On August 20, 2024, six workers died at Prospect Ranch, a large dairy in Keenesburg, Colorado. Authorities said hydrogen sulfide accumulated in a confined area as manure decomposed. The victims were Latino men aged 17 to 50, four from the same extended family.

OSHA launched an investigation that continued into late 2024. Again, decomposing organic material in an enclosed area, plus a lack of ventilation and respiratory protection, proved fatal.

Texas sewer work and refinery maintenance, 2024 — 2025

H₂S has also killed Texans far from oil leases:

• In Trinity County, three men died in 2025 while performing repairs in a manhole at a sewer facility serving the Westwood Shores subdivision. Two worked for H2O Innovation and one for Hydroclear Services. Authorities briefly ordered residents within a quarter‑mile to shelter indoors.
• On October 10, 2024, a maintenance job on a sulfur recovery unit at the Pemex Deer Park refinery near Houston went wrong. A hydrogen sulfide leak killed two contract workers and exposed nearly 50 others. More than a dozen needed medical treatment. Federal investigators later reported that over 27,000 pounds of H₂S were released and criticized delays in sounding alarms and poor internal communication.

A 100‑foot geyser in Reeves County, 2024

In October 2024, ranchers near Toyah in Reeves County watched a 100‑foot‑tall geyser of salty water and oil blast out of the ground. The eruption spewed for weeks. Hydrogen sulfide readings around the site repeatedly forced workers to evacuate. Contaminated water reached ranch land and a nearby creek.

Railroad Commission scientists traced the pressure back to a wastewater disposal well operated by Apache Corporation that injected fluid into a formation 3.3 miles away. The blowout helped push the state to adopt new wastewater‑injection rules on June 1, 2025. However, those rules only require operators to study a two‑mile radius. In this case, the causative well lay beyond that distance.

The common thread in all these events is not Hollywood flair. It is the same physics and chemistry: heavier‑than‑air gas collecting in low spots, rapid “knockdown” at high concentrations, and rescuers becoming victims.

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How often does H₂S kill people?

Official numbers show hydrogen sulfide has been a steady cause of workplace deaths for decades.

• A review of national Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data found 52 worker deaths linked to H₂S between 1993 and 1999.
• An analysis of OSHA case files from 1984 to 1994 documented 80 hydrogen sulfide deaths in 57 incidents. Nineteen of those deaths, and 36 injuries, happened to coworkers who tried to rescue others without air‑supplied respirators.
• More recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data, summarized by OSHA, counted 46 occupational deaths from hydrogen sulfide between 2011 and 2017.

OSHA today still describes hydrogen sulfide as one of the leading causes of fatal gas inhalation incidents in American workplaces. Investigators consistently conclude that basic controls could prevent most of them: reliable gas monitors, supplied‑air respirators, confined‑space training, and strict rules against unprotected rescue attempts.

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How close is this to home for West Texans?

The Landman story is anchored in the Permian Basin, and recent investigations show how widely H₂S is present there.

A joint project by the Houston Chronicle and nonprofit newsroom The Examination in 2024 found that:

• Texas records list more than 54,000 wells in oil and gas operations that have tested for high hydrogen sulfide levels that would be “immediately dangerous to life or health” under NIOSH definitions if people were directly exposed.
• Roughly 78,000 people live near these high‑H₂S operations.
• Dozens of schools in the state sit near identified H₂S hot spots, but only one school in the Permian Basin has continuous hydrogen sulfide monitoring run by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
• At two of three continuous monitoring sites in the Permian, H₂S readings exceeded the state’s 30‑minute ambient air limit of 0.08 ppm 1,590 times between 2020 and early 2024.

Separately, a 2024 study of oil wells along Interstate 10 between San Antonio and Houston found hydrogen sulfide venting into the open air at several sites. Monitors recorded at least 13 wells at or above 300 ppm, which maxed out the equipment, and another eight above 100 ppm. NIOSH classifies 100 ppm and above as immediately dangerous to life or health.

Those levels were measured right at the equipment, not in nearby neighborhoods. Still, the findings back up the idea that a failing valve, a corroded hatch, or a sudden gush can quickly turn a remote tank battery into a hazard.

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How long can an H₂S cloud linger?

In the episode, characters talk about the gas “hanging around” the site. That is not entirely dramatic license.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has reported that hydrogen sulfide released into the air usually oxidizes in about 18 hours, under typical conditions. However, modeling work summarized in public guidance also notes that H₂S in an air mass can remain detectable for up to 42 days, depending on weather and season.

Those numbers can sound contradictory. The key point is that one big release does not always disappear instantly, especially if the air is still, the terrain is low‑lying, or there is little mixing. In a calm draw or depression, a dense pocket of H₂S can sit near the ground, waiting for the next person, dog, or sounder of hogs to wander in.

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Where hunters and landmen actually meet H₂S

Outside of a TV script, where do people run into this gas?

Based on state investigations, OSHA records, and community complaints, the high‑risk places line up with what we see on Landman:

• Oil and gas equipment: Tanks, wellheads, flow lines, and separators handling sour crude or produced water are all potential H₂S sources. Aging tank batteries with corroded seals or missing thief hatches draw particular scrutiny.
• Wastewater disposal and “zombie” wells: High‑pressure injection of produced water can push fluids and gas into old, poorly plugged wells miles away, as in the Reeves County geyser.
• Confined spaces with decay: Manure pits, dairy barns, lagoons, sewers, cisterns, and manholes routinely show up in fatality reports when ventilation fails or workers enter without gas testing and air supply.

Regulators hammer one basic rule: any low, enclosed, or poorly ventilated space near decomposing organic matter or sour oilfield equipment is suspect until proven otherwise with a meter.

That list includes old cisterns in a cornfield, which is exactly where the Bastrop County hunters died.

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What a landman really does, and why it matters here

For Landman.tv readers, there is also the question of the job title itself.

The American Association of Professional Landmen defines a landman as the public‑facing member of an exploration team who secures the legal right to drill or build. In practice, that means:

• Checking courthouse and private records to figure out who owns minerals and surface rights.
• Negotiating leases, right‑of‑way agreements, and surface use terms with landowners.
• Drafting and managing contracts and ensuring that exploration plans comply with regulations.
• Following leases after signature to make sure royalties are paid and titles are cleaned up.

Most landmen spend more time in courthouses and living rooms than on tank batteries. However, in places like the Permian Basin, they do end up at well sites, field tours, and troubleshooting visits with operations teams. That puts them in the same world of sour gas hazards as drillers, pumpers, and roustabouts, even if they do not hold the wrench.

The Landman TV version, built from the Boomtown podcast and Permian lore, pushes that role toward crisis fixer and field boss. The risk H₂S poses to that fictional crew, though, is one real landmen and surface owners should understand whenever a lease involves sour formations or old infrastructure.

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What happens next: questions fans should keep asking

Hydrogen sulfide is not a movie monster. It is a chemical a lot of Texans and other rural residents live and work around every day.

The Landman H₂S episode lands hard because it takes real ingredients and arranges them into the sort of sudden disaster that has already played out in Denver City, Odessa, Bastrop County, Trinity County, and beyond. Hunters walking up on an old tank. A spouse driving out to check on a loved one. A worker dropping into a manhole. A hand climbing into a pit after a dog.

For fans, landmen, and landowners, some practical questions follow:

• Are there known sour wells, tanks, or disposal sites on or near the property?
• What hydrogen sulfide testing has been done, and what did it find?
• If workers or hunters go near tanks, pits, or cisterns, do they have calibrated H₂S monitors?
• Are there clear rules that no one enters a confined space without gas testing and proper respiratory protection?

The show will move on to the next crisis. Out in the oil patch, the risk from H₂S will still be there in December 2025 and beyond, concentrated in the low spots, waiting for whoever walks in without knowing what they are breathing.