Texas Produced Water Disposal Hits Breaking Point
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- Texas is at the 'precipice' of running out of underground space to dispose of the nearly 1 billion gallons of wastewater that oil and gas production generates every day in the Permian Basin, according to elected officials and industry leaders.
- The toxic wastewater, known as produced water, accumulates so rapidly in the Permian that pressure is mounting to permit treated drilling waste to be discharged into Texas rivers and rangeland as underground injection wells reach capacity.
Why it matters: The Permian Basin generates nearly 1 billion gallons of toxic produced water every day, and if Texas exhausts underground injection capacity, the state faces a choice between constraining oil and gas output or greenlighting surface discharge of treated wastewater into rivers and rangeland — a decision with major environmental and economic stakes for the nation's top oil-producing region.
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