Produced Water Consortium submits first legislative report back to Texas Legislature – Midland Reporter-Telegram

Rusty Smith, government director of the consortium, based mostly at Texas Tech College, instructed the Reporter-Telegram it’s too early within the course of to debate any pilot initiatives.

“However now that the report is in, I intend to have the consortium take the identical rigorous method to determine, choosing and establishing the pilot initiatives as we did with the report,” he instructed the Reporter-Telegram by e-mail. “With a difficulty this massive, we’re working as quick as we are able to to search out options.”

He continued, “Briefly, these pilot initiatives are needed to supply proof-of-concept that Permian Basin produced water will be efficiently handled for helpful reuse outdoors of the oil and fuel business. Whereas there are amenities in different states which can be treating produced water for helpful reuse, the Consortium is presently unaware of any amenities within the Permian Basin which can be treating water for any goal aside from disposal or reuse for exploration and manufacturing actions.”

Most of the Consortium members felt that extra testing and evaluation is important to find out traits of produced water within the Permian, therapy expertise capabilities particularly using Permian produced water, and derive extra financial details about treating this water for helpful reuse, Smith added.

The consortium brings collectively business, stakeholders and university experience to handle the difficulty of turning produced water into a brand new supply of water for the general public. It features a stakeholder advisory council with representatives from the oil and fuel business, agriculture, business, environmental organizations, public water utilities, landowners, groundwater homeowners, business water recyclers and midstream firms. The federal government company advisory council consists of members from the Railroad Fee, State Vitality Conservation Workplace, Texas Fee on Environmental High quality, Texas Financial Growth & Tourism Division, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Division of Agriculture and Texas Water Growth Board.

Within the report submitted to legislators, the consortium mentioned the potential for treating produced water may result in an estimated 2 billion barrels per 12 months of handled produced water, rising as excessive as 4 billion barrels per 12 months that might be accessible to be used outdoors of oil and fuel operations, relying on therapy capabilities and restoration charges.

That quantity of potential accessible water ought to present incentive sufficient for each business and state officers to proceed working collectively to develop a system of therapy and helpful reuse, the report added. 

The following step for the consortium is growing these pilot mission amenities, with a direct give attention to the Delaware and Midland basins. The testing and evaluation carried out on the amenities is required to discover a extra definitive reply on totally different expertise’s capability to deal with various water traits.

Smith wrote the report, which is on the market on the consortium’s web site, was particularly submitted to the writer and sponsor of Senate Invoice 601, Chairman Charles Perry and Chairman Dustin Burrows, in addition to to the lieutenant governor and speaker of the Texas Home. 

“I’ve additional briefed with some legislators and employees in addition to different stakeholders on the report and I’d say, thus far, the responses I’ve obtained have been optimistic,” Smith wrote. He added that the report particularly requested funding from the legislature to, at minimal, assist with the testing and evaluation wants of the pilot initiatives.

“Securing that funding, whether or not from the legislature or a mixture of private and non-private sources, goes to be crucial to the success of offering proof of idea from the pilot initiatives,” he wrote.