How Was THIS Allowed To Happen? TX Railroad Commission Suspends 23 Fracking Wastewater Disposal Wells

The state’s oil and gas regulatory agency last month suspended nearly two dozen permits that let companies inject saltwater water into the ground, a routine industry practice that regulators said has contributed to the rising frequency and magnitude of earthquakes in West Texas. The permits are set to expire in early January. They apply to 23 disposal wells holding hundreds of thousands of barrels of produced water, a toxic brine found in the deep recesses of rock rich in crude oil.

Produced water flows up to the surface during crude oil extraction, and although amounts vary, drilling for oil can return enormous volumes of the liquid. A 2022 report found that Texas alone generated 3.9 billion barrels of produced water from oil and gas extraction.

The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates oil and gas in the state, instructed major companies — including Chevron, Cimarex Energy, BPX Midstream, NGL Water Solutions Permian, LLC, Blackbuck Resources and CPB Water — to no longer dispose of saltwater in Reeves and Culberson counties in an effort to reduce earthquakes in the region. According to the Railroad Commission, seven earthquakes occurred in Reeves and Culberson counties in 2023. In November, the U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in the region, which tied for the fourth strongest seismic event in Texas history. The process of injecting saltwater back into the ground “is likely contributing to recent seismic activity,” the Railroad Commission has said.

Storing produced water in deep underground rock formations is one of the few ways oil and gas operators can get rid of the contaminated, salty mixture. These wells lie in pockets of rock formations underground. “The water has to go somewhere,” said Robert Trentham, a senior lecturer and geologist at the University of Texas Permian Basin, in an interview about seismic activity in the region. But when the chemical compound is pumped into wedges already full of water from previous injections, it increases the pressure above the surrounding rock, contributing to seismic activity, Trentham said.

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https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/10/west-texas-produced-water-wells-fracking-oil-gas/