Texas’ toxic wastewater will have few reuse options, study finds

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Oil and gasoline extraction within the Permian Basin of arid West Texas is anticipated to supply some 588 million gallons of wastewater per day for the subsequent 38 years, in line with findings of a state-commissioned study group — thrice as a lot because the oil it produces.

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

“It’s a massive amount of water,” stated Rusty Smith, the consortium’s govt director, addressing the Texas Groundwater Summit in San Antonio on Tuesday.

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

Lawmakers in Texas, the nation’s prime oil and gasoline producer, commissioned the Produced Water Consortium in February 2021, following related efforts in different oil-producing states to study how produced water, laced with toxic chemical substances, may be recycled into native water provides.

The Texas study centered on the Permian Basin, the state’s prime oil-producing zone, the place years of booming inhabitants progress 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 instructed an viewers in San Antonio, was to calculate the amount of produced water within the Permian. A nationwide study in 2017 recognized Texas because the nation’s prime supply of produced water however didn’t take into account 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 primarily based its estimates on annual 24-hour sampling of wastewater manufacturing and month-to-month data of wastewater disposal.

“There’s just a lack of data, so it’s an estimate,” stated Dan Mueller, senior supervisor with the Environmental Defense Fund in Texas, which is a part of the consortium.

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

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

“It’s a massive amount of salt,” Smith stated. “We’d essentially create new salt flats in West Texas and collapse the global salt markets.”

He estimated that therapy 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 prime of that, distributing the recycled water would require large infrastructure investments — each for high-tech therapy vegetation and the distribution system to move recycled water to customers in cities and cities.

“We’re going to need pipelines to move it,” Smith stated. “We have quite a gap we need to bridge and figure out how we’re going to make it more economical.”

That is provided that produced water in West Texas may be confirmed secure for consumption when handled.

Pilot initiatives 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, despite concerns over potential well being impacts. California has banned irrigation with wastewater from fracking, however not wastewater from standard drilling, regardless that the 2 contain similar toxins. Produced water usually incorporates various quantities of naturally occurring salts, metals, radioactive supplies, together with chemical components. Every area’s produced water will bear completely different contents, relying on the composition of underground formations.

Beginning reuse efforts in West Texas, Smith stated, will require pilot initiatives and chemical evaluation to find out feasibility.

This story is revealed in partnership with Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, unbiased news group that covers local weather, power and the surroundings. Sign up for the ICN publication here.

Disclosure: Environmental Defense Fund has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Find an entire list of them here.

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