WATER AND OIL

This long, hot, dry summer has brought the importance of water to the forefront. Water is a very important resource today, but in the not too distant future, it will become the most valuable of all resources. T. Boone Pickens has predicted that water will be the new liquid gold in a very short time.

Americans get half of their fresh drinking water from underground sources. With this in mind, our underground water supplies must be protected.

Our underground water supply is being threatened from many sides. A major threat is excessive pumping. The Texas Water Development Board reports that the Trinity Aquifer, which is below much of District 59, has dropped 166.98 feet since 1955. Since 1994 it has dropped 50 feet. Last year it dropped 5.9 feet and, because we are in a drought with no rains to recharge the aquifer, the rate of drop will increase.

One of the greatest threats to our underground water supply is the oil and gas industry, which enjoys one set of rules with regards to water while we, the common people, must abide by another. The oil producer can drill as many water wells as desired and pump as much water from the aquifers as they please, but the rest of us must get permits to drill and many of us are facing the threat of having a meter placed on our wells to monitor use. The oil and gas producer can sell unlimited amounts of water, but the other citizens face restrictions. This is not fair.

The unregulated pumping of water is not the only threat to the water supply from the petroleum industry. The regulation of the oil and gas drilling is so lax that the threat of pollution of the underground water supply is real. In 1969 the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire because of oil and other industrial waste floating on it, and the public decided it was time to clean up the pollution. If we are waiting for our ground water supply to catch fire before we act, we have waited too long. A Wise County, Texas, home had a documented event reported in the 1970’s on the NBC Nightly News of the kitchen tap water burning due to contamination of the well water by natural gas leaking from a well. That family sued the gas producer and won damages. It is past time to insure that threats of pollution to our water supply from the production of oil and gas are eliminated.

Another problem connected to the petroleum industry is injection wells. Injection wells, especially Class II wells, are used to inject fluids connected to natural gas and oil production and waste water from gas plants, deep underground. The injection wells are, according to the law, not to threaten the water supply for 10,000 years. The technology is not working because law suits have already been filed due to the failure of the injection wells to prevent pollution. At DeBerry, Texas, the US EPA is delivering water to homes in five gallon jugs because the water supply is contaminated with arsenic, benzene, lead, and mercury from oil field waste injection wells. Law suits have also been filed in Florida and other states. This problem should be solved before law suits are needed.

According to the Texas Environmental Profiles website between 1961 and 1981 sixty billion gallons of industrial waste were disposed of in underground injection wells. More waste is being injected today than in that twenty year period because oil and gas production is greater than then. TEP reported that ten barrels of salt water are brought to the surface for each barrel of oil produced. Large tanker trucks transport the waste to injection wells from the producing well and in so doing are destroying the roads and endangering the citizens using the roads. Injection wells must be stopped before we turn District 59 into a polluted waste land.

A third threat to the underground water supply is fracking, which is done by companies to increase production. Various substances are injected underground to increase the production of oil and gas. The oil and gas producers do not have to report the volume or name of chemicals being injected during fracking. Unlike injection wells, which are supposedly ended below a confining layer, fracking in done in the area where fresh ground water is found. The damage done by fracking not only endangers the water supply, but also endangers the ground structure and has done damage to homes, buildings and roads. It is time that fracking be regulated.

There are additional threats to the underground water supply besides the oil and gas industry. One is a law which gave Abilene or Midland permission to enter any county with populations of less than 14,000 to claim water for that city. The “rule of capture” is the legal concept that governs pumping of water. It allows the one with the largest pump to take as much water as can be taken. The aquifers are dropping at an alarming rate, and, if one of these cities comes to a county with the intent of getting water, the residents will have to watch helplessly as the aquifers are drained.

Protection of the aquifers is possible with a water district as exists in Erath and Comanche Counties and in Mills County. The TCEQ was ordered to do a report on Priority Groundwater Management Areas by September 1, 2005, but the report is still pending. The report could have created a water district that would have protected the aquifer by regulating the rule of capture, but the state agency is not acting. This failure to act is placing the water supply in great danger.

The other half of the fresh drinking water comes from reservoirs. This is a major concern. With the lack of rain, the surface water supplies are being depleted. Lake Proctor is on the verge of being over subscribed. Eight communities depend on the Lake for water, and, because Stephenville is not currently getting water from the Lake as it is legally can do, a crisis is not eminent. Water from Lake Proctor reaches throughout District 59 and continued proper management of the Lake is essential to guarantee water in the future.

Water and the protection of the water supply must be a priority item in the next legislative session.