{"id":25272,"date":"2013-03-13T09:03:23","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T14:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=25272"},"modified":"2013-03-13T09:03:24","modified_gmt":"2013-03-13T14:03:24","slug":"ambiguities-persist-in-regulating-water-withdrawals-for-fracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/03\/13\/ambiguities-persist-in-regulating-water-withdrawals-for-fracking\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambiguities Persist in Regulating Water Withdrawals for Fracking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Tamir Kalifa\/Texas Tribune<\/p>

Texas\u2019 water code was written well before the spread of fracking. As a result, some groundwater authorities require companies using water for fracking to obtain a permit, while others do not.<\/p><\/div>\n

From the Texas Tribune:\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/h4>\n

In Karnes County, at the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale, oil and gas drillers seeking to use water for hydraulic fracturing must get a permit from the local groundwater authority. They can pump only a certain amount of water, and they must report how much they use.<\/p>\n

In Dimmit County, another Eagle Ford Shale drilling hotbed, drillers can pump as much water as they want \u2014 and no permit is required.<\/p>\n

This tale of two counties reflects the ambiguity in state rules regarding groundwater for fracking. Texas\u2019 water code was written well before the spread of fracking, which involves sending millions of gallons of water (along with sand and chemicals) down a well to rupture hard rock that contains oil or gas. As a result, some groundwater authorities require companies using water for fracking to obtain a permit, while others do not.<\/p>\n

The groundwater groups want legislators to clarify the regulations so that they can understand the amount of water being pumped from aquifers in their area for fracking, and potentially put limits on the volumes being pumped.<\/p>\n

Interpretation of the law \u201cdepends on which lawyer you talk to,\u201d said Slate Williams, general manager of the Crockett County Groundwater Conservation District in West Texas. His district does not require a permit for water wells used for fracking. It does ask drillers to report the amount of water they withdraw monthly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t always do that, but it\u2019s something we ask,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

The confusion among groundwater districts\u00a0stems from a provision in the Texas water code<\/a> that states that a groundwater district cannot require a permit if the well is drilled to supply water for a rig doing \u201cdrilling or exploration operations\u201d for an oil or gas well.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, \u201cdrilling or exploration\u201d has meant processes like mixing water with clay and other materials to make mud that makes it easier to drill. But the question that groundwater districts are struggling with\u00a0is this: Is fracking considered \u201cdrilling or exploration\u201d? Or does fracking count as oil and gas \u201cproduction,\u201d in which case the groundwater districts can require a permit?<\/p>\n

Groundwater permits can stipulate limits on the amount of water pumped, and limits on the time frame within which a water well may be used. Large farmers and cities must get permits to use groundwater. The use of water for petroleum drilling and exploration is one of three explicit exemptions to the permitting requirement. (The other two are surface mining, and homesteads of more than 10 acres that need a modest amount of water for home use and livestock.)<\/p>\n

Several bills filed in the Legislature this session seek to resolve the confusion, which has become more pressing as water use for fracking has soared<\/a>. It more than doubled between 2008 and 2011. In 2011, fracking still accounted for less than 1 percent of the state\u2019s overall water usage, a widely cited study says. But in some rural areas like Dimmit County, the percentage of water going to fracking has reached the double digits<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 873<\/a>, by state Sen. Glenn Hegar<\/a>, R-Katy, would prevent groundwater districts from exempting from the permitting process water wells that are used for fracking. Under the bill, Texas\u2019 97 groundwater conservation districts would have to issue permits for water withdrawals related to fracking operations.<\/p>\n

House Bill 3317<\/a>, filed Friday by state Rep. James Keffer<\/a>, R-Eastland, chairman of the House Energy Resources Committee, takes another route. It would exempt fracking-related water wells from permitting. However, it would require those water well operators\u00a0to comply with other requirements established by the groundwater district, such as limits on how much water can be pumped.\u00a0It would also require the well operators to report how much water is being used. SB 1749<\/a>, by state Sen. Carlos Uresti<\/a>, D-San Antonio, mirrors Keffer\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n

Deb Hastings, executive vice president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said that in her view, water wells are exempt from groundwater districts\u2019 permitting requirements, and that any legislative changes should not result in closing the exemption. TXOGA supports Keffer\u2019s bill, she said in a statement, but it does not support Hegar\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n

Stacey Steinbach, executive director of the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts, said in an email that her group’s legislative committee “supports Hegar’s bill and has not yet discussed the other bills.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, confusion continues over fracking-related water\u00a0policies among different groundwater districts. Some counties require permits, and others require information but not permits. McMullen County, for example, does not require a permit for water-related fracking, but it does require registering the water well and reporting on the amount of water used, according to Lonnie Stewart, manager of the McMullen County Groundwater Conservation District. The district is in the Eagle Ford Shale.<\/p>\n

The Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District, which covers Atascosa, Frio, Wilson and Karnes counties in the Eagle Ford Shale area, has an especially strict\u00a0permitting program, water experts say. The district allows companies to pump a finite amount \u2014 two acre-feet of water per acre of land per year, said Russell Labus, a field technician with the district. It also requires them to provide monthly pumping reports.<\/p>\n

Other districts have proceeded more cautiously when it comes to regulation. \u201cWe\u2019ve been under the impression that the [water for fracking] is exempt\u201d from permitting, said Bay Laxon, secretary of the Wintergarden Groundwater Conservation District, a South Texas district that includes Dimmit County. The district requires companies to register fracking water wells, which tells the district the location of the wells. The district does not require them to report their water use, Laxon said, though some companies, including Anadarko Petroleum Corp,\u00a0do anyway.<\/p>\n

Like some other districts, Wintergarden is evaluating whether it can tighten its permitting rules, as the amount of water used for fracking continues to increase.\u00a0Danny Krienke, a board member of the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District in the Panhandle, said in an interview<\/a> last month that his district was also considering tightening rules for fracking-related water use.<\/p>\n

Even if legislators give them more explicit authority over water wells used for fracking, groundwater districts will still be powerless when it comes to a different type of fracking-related water well \u2014 disposal wells. These wells are where water left over from the fracking process gets dumped, along with chemicals and minerals in the water.\u00a0Disposal wells get drilled thousands of feet in the earth.\u00a0They are regulated by the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees the drilling industry.<\/p>\n

Disposal wells are among the most controversial aspects of the fracking process, because many people living near them dislike the heavy traffic from water trucks, and they fear that contaminated water will spread. Williams, of the Crockett County Groundwater Conservation District,\u00a0said that salty water injected into a disposal well has on occasion spurted back up out of a decades-old abandoned well nearby.<\/p>\n

This is the second article in an occasional series on water and fracking. The first<\/a> covered water-supply concerns. More articles in this series, which is a collaboration with StateImpact Texas, will run in the coming weeks at\u00a0stateimpacttexas.org<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0texastribune.org<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in their stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune<\/a> at http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2013\/03\/13\/fracking-groundwater-rules-reflect-legal-ambiguiti\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Texas Tribune:\u00a0 In Karnes County, at the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale, oil and gas drillers seeking to use water for hydraulic fracturing must get a permit from the local groundwater authority. They can pump only a certain amount of water, and they must report how much they use. In Dimmit County, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":25275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[64,15,295,22,21,105],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}