Texas’ oil and gas industry will produce “massive amount” of toxic wastewater with few reuse options, study finds

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Oil and fuel extraction within the Permian Basin of arid West Texas is anticipated to supply some 588 million gallons of wastewater per day for the following 38 years, in response to findings of a state-commissioned examine group — 3 times as a lot because the oil it produces.

The announcement from the Texas Produced Water Consortium got here two days earlier than it was as a consequence of launch its findings on potential recycling of oilfield wastewater.

“It’s a large quantity of water,” mentioned Rusty Smith, the consortium’s government director, addressing the Texas Groundwater Summit in San Antonio on Tuesday.

However making use of that so-called “produced water” nonetheless stays nicely past the present attain of state authorities, he mentioned.

Lawmakers in Texas, the nation’s high oil and fuel producer, commissioned the Produced Water Consortium in February 2021, following related efforts in different oil-producing states to check how produced water, laced with poisonous chemical compounds, might be recycled into native water provides.

The Texas examine targeted on the Permian Basin, the state’s high oil-producing zone, the place years of booming inhabitants development have severely stretched water provides and planners forecast a deficit of 20 billion gallons per yr by yr 2030.

The consortium’s first problem, Smith informed an viewers in San Antonio, was to calculate the amount of produced water within the Permian. A nationwide examine in 2017 recognized Texas because the nation’s high supply of produced water however didn’t contemplate particular areas.

It’s a difficult determine to compute as a result of Texas doesn’t require common reporting of produced water portions. The consortium based mostly its estimates on annual 24-hour sampling of wastewater manufacturing and month-to-month information of wastewater disposal.

“There’s only a lack of knowledge, so it’s an estimate,” mentioned Dan Mueller, senior supervisor with the Environmental Protection Fund in Texas, which is a part of the consortium.

Their estimate — about 170 billions of gallons per yr — equals almost half the yearly water consumption in New York Metropolis.

That amount creates steep logistical and financial challenges to recycling — an costly course of that renders half the unique quantity as concentrated brine which must be completely saved.

“It’s a large quantity of salt,” Smith mentioned. “We’d basically create new salt flats in West Texas and collapse the worldwide salt markets.”

He estimated that remedy prices of $2.55 to $10 per barrel and disposal prices of $0.70 per barrel would hike up the water worth far past the typical $0.40 per barrel paid by municipal customers or $0.03 per barrel paid by irrigators.

On high of that, distributing the recycled water would require massive infrastructure investments — each for high-tech remedy vegetation and the distribution system to move recycled water to customers in cities and cities.

“We’re going to want pipelines to maneuver it,” Smith mentioned. “Now we have fairly a niche we have to bridge and determine how we’re going to make it extra economical.”

That’s provided that produced water in West Texas might be confirmed protected for consumption when handled.

Pilot tasks for produced water reuse have already taken place in California, the place some irrigation districts are watering crops with a partial mix of handled wastewater, regardless of issues over potential well being impacts. California has banned irrigation with wastewater from fracking, however not wastewater from standard drilling, though the 2 include related toxins. Produced water usually incorporates various quantities of naturally occurring salts, metals, radioactive supplies, together with chemical components. Each area’s produced water will bear completely different contents, relying on the composition of underground formations.

Starting reuse efforts in West Texas, Smith mentioned, would require pilot tasks and chemical evaluation to find out feasibility.

This story is revealed in partnership with Inside Local weather Information, a nonprofit, unbiased information group that covers local weather, vitality and the surroundings. Join the ICN e-newsletter right here.

Disclosure: Environmental Protection Fund has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full record of them right here.

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