Railroad Commission Creeps Closer to Big New Rules on Oilfield Waste

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AUSTIN — The Texas Railroad Commission announced a draft rule during its Aug. 15 meeting. The new rule stands to revise rules for managing oil and gas waste for the first time in 40 years.

The Commission announced that its now seeking public comment on the changes.

New regulations would affect a range of disosal sites for waste from the oil and gas industry in the state. From pits next to drilling rigs to commercial toxic waste management facilities that numerous drilling companies contract with. Drilling mud, sludge, cuttings, and produced gray water fall under the new rules.

According to the RRC, the sweeping overhaul puts groundwater protection front and center. It also adapts historical rules to new technological advances in the energy industry. Outside oil and gas, the amendments would affect geothermal, carbon sequestration, and brine mining wells.

The rules would heavily affect those working in the oil and gas industry, nearly half a million Texans in 2023. Changes in amendments could produce even more jobs in the energy industry, as the rules also encourage more recycling of wastewater. Recycling of waste produces more jobs per ton of waste than either landfilling or incineration.

Existing rules have been on the books since 1984. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has become more widespread since the mid-80s. While not a new technology — it's been in use since 1949 — it was once more rare than it is. Today, it accounts for around 90 percent of operations. Geologic concerns aside, it produces five times the amount of wastewater than a standard oil well. The process injects well with a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure, in order to extract more oil from the well.

Due to the sheer amount of wastewater created by fracking, risk of groundwater contamination is also greater than standard well drilling.

In Texas, waste pits have been linked to at least six cases of groundwater contamination and hundreds of violations of existing state rules.

The RRC has pushed to modernize their rules for several years, and groups on both sides of the political aisle have agreed the need is there. Still, the process hasn't been without detractors, particularly within the industry standing to be affected — the oil industry.

An industry task force met for two years to provide recommendations before the Railroad Commission released an informal draft to the public in October 2023. That round of public comments informed the updated draft released last month.

Commission Shift is a nonprofit organization focused on reforming oil and gas oversight in Texas. The group praised some of the new rules in the latest draft. Among them, the requirement for operators to register waste pits with the state. They were critical of what they perceived as weak protections toward groundwater.

Karr Ingham, president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, said his group raised concerns that provisions in the informal draft would be “unworkable” and too costly for smaller independent oil and gas companies.

“I believe a number of the changes that were made do address those concerns,” Ingham said in an interview.

“Yes, we’re much more comfortable with the current draft than that initial draft.”

The agency is now accepting written comments until Oct. 15 after extending the original deadline of Sept. 30. The Railroad Commission proposes that the new regulation, which would replace Statewide Rule 8, go into effect July 1, 2025.

“The proposed rules include a combination of strategies to protect groundwater from pollution, including engineering and design controls, groundwater monitoring, and closure standards,” spokesperson Patty Ramon for the RRC said in an email.

“In addition, the design and operational standards become more strict as waste volume increases, and also considers factors such as time in the ground, and proximity to groundwater.”

Currently, oil and gas companies are not required to report the volume of produced water generated in the state. But a 2022 report estimated that in the Permian Basin alone, 3.9 billion barrels, or more than 168 billion gallons, of produced water is generated every year.