{"id":77120,"date":"2024-08-07T08:32:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-07T14:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=77120"},"modified":"2024-08-07T08:32:57","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T14:32:57","slug":"texas-energy-news-fracking-backfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/07\/texas-energy-news-fracking-backfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Energy News: Fracking Backfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

Ranchers reported abandoned oil wells spewing wastewater. A new study blames fracking<\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fracking wastewater, injected underground for permanent disposal, traveled 12 miles through geological faults before bursting to the surface through a previously plugged West Texas oil well in 2022, according to a new study from Southern Methodist University.<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s the first study to draw specific links between wastewater injection and recent blowouts in the Permian Basin, the nation\u2019s top producing oil field, where old oil wells have lately\u00a0begun to spray<\/a>\u00a0salty water.<\/h2>\n

It raises concerns about the possibility of widespread groundwater contamination in West Texas and increases the urgency for oil producers to find alternative outlets for the\u00a0millions of gallons<\/a>\u00a0of toxic wastewater that come from Permian Basin oil wells every day.<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe established a significant link between wastewater injection and oil well blowouts in the Permian Basin,\u201d wrote the authors of\u00a0the study<\/a>, funded in part\u00a0by NASA<\/a>\u00a0and published last month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The finding suggests “a potential for more blowouts in the near future,\u201d it said.<\/h2>\n

For years, the Texas agency that regulates the oil and gas extraction industry has refrained from putting forth an explanation for the blowout phenomenon, even as a chorus of local landowners<\/a>\u00a0alleged that wastewater injections were driving the\u00a0flows of gassy brine<\/a>\u00a0onto the surface of their properties since about 2022.<\/h2>\n

Injection disposal is currently the primary outlet for the tremendous amount of oilfield wastewater, also known as\u00a0produced water<\/a>, that flows from fracked oil wells in West Texas. Thousands of injection wells dot the Permian Basin, each reviewed and permitted by Texas\u2019 oilfield regulator, the Texas Railroad Commission.<\/h2>\n

Oil producers are exploring alternatives \u2014 a small portion of produced water is\u00a0reused in fracking<\/a>, and Texas is in the process of permitting facilities that will treat produced water and\u00a0release it into rivers<\/a>\u00a0and streams. Still, underground injection remains the cheapest and most popular method by far.<\/h2>\n

A scientific connection has solidified between the practice of injection disposal and the increasing strength and frequency of earthquakes nearby. In the Permian Basin, a steady crescendo of tremors peaked\u00a0last November<\/a>\u00a0with magnitude 5.4 earthquake, the state\u2019s strongest in 30 years,\u00a0triggering heightened restrictions<\/a>\u00a0on injections in the area.<\/i><\/h2>\n

RTWT<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ranchers reported abandoned oil wells spewing wastewater. A new study blames fracking   Fracking wastewater, injected underground for permanent disposal, traveled 12 miles through geological faults before bursting to the surface through a previously plugged West Texas oil well in 2022, according to a new study from Southern Methodist University. It\u2019s the first study to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8426,3727],"tags":[17245,17784,17783,7085],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77122,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77120\/revisions\/77122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}