Texas’ oil wastewater plans proceed

EPA concerned toxins will get dumped into public waterways

WASHINGTON – Environmental officials in Texas and other western states are moving ahead with plans to allow oil and gas companies to treat drilling wastewater and discharge it into rivers and streams, even as the Trump administration balks at endorsing the practice amid widespread questions about public health effects.

In a report last month, the Environmental Protection Agency not only outlined concerns from scientists and environmentalists about the toxins in the hundreds of billions of gallons of wastewater produced each year by oil and gas drilling, but also from oil companies themselves.

One large company, the report noted, was troubled by proposals to allow treated wastewater to irrigate crops or get dumped into public waterways, citing “a lack of science around treatment efficacy and associated liability risks.” Companies across the board said that disposal wells that store wastewater underground remain a far cheaper option.

“It doesn’t indicate there’s any pathway forward,” Lee Fuller, vice president of government relations at the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said of the EPA report. “At this point, the only real opportunities for reuse are within the production operations in the field, displacing the fresh water needed for hydraulic fracturing.”

“It doesn’t indicate there’s any pathway forward. At this point, the only real opportunities for reuse are within the production operations in the field, displacing the fresh water needed for hydraulic fracturing.”

As local hospitals fill with COVID-19 patients, the need for workers, such as this nurse at Methodist Hospital, is growing.