Report criticizes fracturing on UT land
Drilling and hydraulic fracturing on University of Texas lands in West Texas have created an environmental and health risk, a report released Tuesday concluded.
The report by the Austin-based Environment Texas Research and Policy Center and the Frontier Group, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based think tank, said fracturing is “so dangerous it should not occur anywhere.”
But if it’s going to happen, University Lands should study best practices around the country and write stronger environmental protections into its leases with oil and gas companies, the report said.
UT officials called the report one-sided and defended the environmental record of University Lands, which manages about 2.1 million acres given in the 1800s to benefit the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems. “We certainly are not casual in our stewardship responsibility for these lands,” said Scott Kelley, executive vice chancellor for business affairs. “We understand they were given to us for perpetuity.”
Open to ideas
Mark Houser, University Lands CEO, said the office is open to good ideas that could “reasonably” be implemented but emphasized the economic benefits the lands have provided the state’s largest universities.
The report asks University Lands to prohibit drilling on lands with “special environmental value,” such as the Pecos River watershed and Diablo Plateau, and land that is habitat for migratory birds or endangered species.
Among the concerns cited in the report: the industry’s heavy water usage during a historic drought, the amount of flaring and venting of natural gas at well sites and the amount of toxic chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing. “The University of Texas has a particular responsibility to protect Texas’ environment,” Anne Clark of Environment Texas said at a news conference.
The report said 1.6 million gallons of pollutants have been spilled on university land since 2008. But Houser called the amount spilled the equivalent of “one can of Coke per acre per year over this eight-year period.”
Most of the 2.1 million acres managed by University Lands are across 19 West Texas counties, much of it on top of the Permian Basin, the state’s largest oil and gas reservoir. It receives a 25 percent royalty for oil and gas production on its holdings. Last year, a record $1.1 billion in oil and gas revenue was generated on university lands. This year, an estimated $800 million in royalties will be paid, according to the university system, reflecting this year’s fall in crude oil prices.
Light pollution
Royalties from university lands flow to the Permanent University Fund, an $18 billion endowment set up by the Texas Constitution, the principal of which can’t be spent. The fund helps support the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems. The two systems can use the money only for construction, renovations, major library acquisitions and “significant educational and research equipment and academic excellence programs.”
The report also outlined the light pollution concerns of McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains, where astronomers can see not only into deep space but also the glaring lights of drilling rigs, gas flares and well completion operations in the Permian Basin. Between 2010 and 2014, around 5,000 drilling permits were issued in Reeves, Culberson and Pecos counties, north of the observatory.
The observatory and San Antonio-based Pioneer Energy Services, a contract driller and oil field services company, have been studying the sky glow problem, testing lighting on drilling rigs that is still safe but doesn’t send light skyward like a beacon.