Published: May 07, 2008 06:22 pm            

Groundwater district to debate disposal wells

Four counties poised to enact groundwater use conditions

Galen Scott

gscott@weatherforddemocrat.com

When the oil and gas company drilling for minerals under Larry Jones’ property abandoned their well in the late 1970s, they put a 5-gallon bucket over the surface pipe, covered it with dirt and drove away.

“The top of that bucket rotted away and I was getting salty water bubbling up and the cows were eating the dirt,” Jones recalled. “And there was gas bubbling up. I could’ve thrown a match and I would have had the damndest fire you’ve ever seen in your life.”

These days, Jones, a retired U.S. Navy commander, is particularly concerned about the disastrous effect improperly constructed or maintained injection and disposal wells could have on the environment in Parker County. And he’s in a unique position to do something about it.

Jones and seven other newly-appointed directors of the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District are crafting policies to monitor and regulate the use of groundwater beneath Montague, Wise, Parker and Hood counties.

A discussion of the Upper Trinity’s evolving policy for oilfield waste disposal and injection wells, and the establishment of future water use conditions throughout the district, is expected to take place at a public meeting inside the Parker County Courthouse tonight, beginning at 6 p.m.

“There are a whole bunch of folks who are pretty high-and-tight about [injection/disposal] wells, and I agree with them, really,” Jones said Wednesday. “That’s probably one of the biggest calamities that we’re staring at. These things are potentially just horrible.”

According to the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), disposal wells inject fluid into an underground interval that is not productive of oil and gas, whereas injection wells reinject fluids into the same or similar reservoir, from which the fluids originated, for secondary recovery of oil.

The RRC reports Texas has more than 50,000 permitted oil and gas injection and disposal wells. In July 2007, there were 12 disposal wells operating in Parker County, and permits were pending for 18 more.

The RRC acknowledges dirty water pumped into injection wells has, in some cases, come in contact with ground and surface water, but maintains the occurrence does not represent a significant source of pollution.

Even though the RRC claims there are no known instances of ongoing groundwater contamination as a result of saltwater disposal activities in the Barnett Shale, Texans are concerned about the risk, as evidenced by a plethora of law suits filed by private citizens.

Two weeks ago, the City of Fort Worth, which encompasses most of Tarrant County, extended a long-standing moratorium on disposal wells within its city limits. Drilling is common inside Fort Worth and without a nearby means of disposal, the waste is routinely trucked to rural areas.

Jones said the Upper Trinity district already has a policy wherein disposal well concerns are shared with whichever state agency is handling the permit, either RRC or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

According to the Texas Groundwater Protection Committee’s Web site, the RRC is responsible for, “the disposal of oil and gas wastes by injection and the injection of fluid for enhanced oil recovery.”

On the other hand, TCEQ, “helps ensure that oil and gas do not mix with groundwater by providing technical assistance about surface casing requirements.”

The Upper Trinity Groundwater district is currently encouraging state regulators to deny well permits within its boundaries unless the operator concedes to certain demands, which include the installation of groundwater monitoring wells placed cardinally around the disposal site.

Jones is worried the Upper Trinity’s current criteria may not provide sufficient protection against problematic disposal and injection wells.

“The monitor wells might not necessarily prove anything because there could be blow-outs popping up miles away that wouldn’t be related to the aquifer around the well,” he said. “It could pop up through a fissure or an old well. There’s so many of these old oil wells that were drilled back in the ‘30s or whenever, and nobody cared back in those days.”

In addition to addressing the injection well issue, Jones and the rest of the board are expected to consider adopting an official set of “future use conditions,” which lay the foundation for the district’s developing management plan.

“We don’t want to set [future use conditions] too high,” explained Jones. “If somebody comes in with a development or something and demands water, if we set it too high and the development is within our desired conditions, we have to approve it, regardless of the purpose. We have to reach a happy medium somehow.”

When finalized, the Upper Trinity’s management plan will feature a detailed assessment and explanation of Parker County’s groundwater resources. The Texas Administrative Code also requires the district to produce a Web site displaying its rules.

Voters in all four counties agreed to create the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District during a November 2007 election.

According to a summary of Senate Bill 1983, the Upper Trinity district is prohibited from imposing taxes or exercising the power of eminent domain. However, directors can assess groundwater production fees and regulate well spacing.

        

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