11/01/2024

Leaked Memo Details $100M Emergency Request to Address Texas Oil Well Blowouts, Contamination

Houston Chronicle | Amanda Drane | Nov. 1, 2024

Leaked Memo Details $100M Emergency Request to Address Texas Oil Well Blowouts, Contamination

Houston Chronicle | Amanda Drane | Nov. 1, 2024

Texas oil and gas regulators requested more than $100 million in emergency funds from the state last week to address pressing problems related to uncapped wells and oil field wastewater. 

In a letter obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, told legislators that “emergent issues have developed” since it submitted its annual budget request Aug. 30. 

Railroad Commission Executive Director Danny Sorrells wrote that his staff needs additional funds to address a growing number of leaking wells. Without the additional funds, he said, the commission cannot sufficiently protect the state’s groundwater from contamination. 

The emergency request comes weeks after a 100-foot geyser erupted from a West Texas oil field plagued by earthquakes linked to wastewater injection. The geyser raised questions about whether the water fueling it was wastewater and, if so, how it got there. 

Leaking and erupting wells are eating up more of the commission’s well-plugging budget, limiting its ability to get ahead of the problem by plugging wells before they begin to leak, it said in the letter. The additional funds would help alleviate that, the commission said in a follow-up statement. 

“This is all part of our vigilant work to plug wells,” it said.

The surprise funding request underscores the growing nature of the problem simmering beneath the surface in West Texas. It increases the amount of state funds requested for well plugging by 72% compared to what was already budgeted.

The Railroad Commission’s original budget was $234 million for well plugging in 2026 and 2027, including $95 million in federal funds provided under a new Biden administration effort.

The commission’s budget noted that oil fields across Texas are aging, exacerbating the threat posed by neglected and orphaned wells without responsible owners to plug them. Orphaned wells, whose owners go bankrupt or dissolve, become wards of the state. They leave open holes in the ground that can allow wastewater to gush to the surface, requiring an emergency response from the commission. 

The commission spent nearly $10 million to plug 38 emergency wells during fiscal year 2023 alone, according to its budget request. Lawmakers have been warned that a new source of funds may be needed in order for the commission to do work that protects the state’s groundwater.  

“The costs and number of emergency wells have increased sharply over the last several years,” it said. 

The commission also requested an additional $2.7 million to hire 10 full-time employees to investigate the impacts of wastewater injection, a byproduct of fracking, on underground formations. Their job would be to understand “the root causes” of water blowouts and earthquakes.

A history of ‘substantial concerns’ 

The commission’s new team of investigators wouldn’t be alone in their efforts to understand how the oil industry’s wastewater is impacting the underground environment. 

A rash of leaking wells, geysers and earthquakes fueled a petition from the environmental groups Earthjustice, Commission Shift and Clean Water Action earlier this year. The petition asked the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the state’s regulation of oil field wastewater and its “failure to protect drinking water.” 

The petition “raises substantial concerns,” the EPA replied in a May letter in response. The agency’s regional office in Dallas said in the letter it would need time for review. 

An additional letter from watchdog groups Environmental Integrity Project and Commission Shift last month raised more questions about why Railroad Commission data suggests wastewater wells were failing mechanical integrity tests at concerning rates. 

The groups have said it is especially important to review issues with the state’s regulation of wastewater injection while the EPA considers a request from the Railroad Commission to regulate carbon dioxide storage wells, potentially placing an additional waste stream under the commission’s jurisdiction as it contends with a host of issues related to industry wastewater. 

“We noticed that the rate of mechanical integrity test failure was higher for carbon dioxide injection wells than it was for other wells, which is not totally a surprise, because carbon dioxide is so corrosive it can eat away at the pipes and the well bores,” Abel Russ, author of the Environmental Integrity Project’s letter to the EPA, said in an interview. 

If existing disposal wells for wastewater and carbon dioxide are failing, he said, it raises doubts about the success of a new kind of well that is intended to store carbon dioxide indefinitely. 

The EPA said in a statement Thursday that it was reviewing the concerns raised by the environmental groups.

“We look forward to countering the allegations by outside groups,” the Railroad Commission said in a statement. “We have already provided the EPA preliminary comments … and will continue to provide them information proving our commitment to protecting the environment and residents.”

The commission said in its comments to the EPA that it was working to balance the economic realities of the industry with the need to address mounting underground pressure, blowouts and earthquakes. It added it was “developing a multi-faceted produced water management strategy to address these challenges.” 

“The commission is approaching many of these issues on a regional basis rather than a well-by-well basis,” it said in the letter.

A peer-reviewed study by the Groundwater Protection Council will also help inform the commission’s efforts to better regulate wastewater injection. That study, which is expected to be completed by next July, comes at no cost to the commission. The nonprofit said it conducts these reviews for member states as a public service.