Tex-ass' official state anti-environmental quality commission is ready to let Big Oil dump "produced water" into lakes, streams and creeks, all this of course without scientific study.
Oh, and I don't know whether it was the administration of a neoliberal Democrap president or a Rethuglican who enabled this, but one of them did:
Federal law allows produced water to be discharged to waterways west of the 98th Meridian, a line that roughly divides the arid West and the water-rich East, if it is beneficial to agriculture or wildlife. East of the 98th Meridian, including Austin and points east, the water must first pass through a central waste treatment facility. The TCEQ additionally sought authority, or primacy, from the Environmental Protection Agency to permit produced water discharges statewide.
EPA granted the request in 2021, and this May, the TCEQ released its draft permit covering discharges east of the 98th Meridian. The permit will authorize discharges of produced water from stripper wells — marginal wells with low production levels — to inland rivers and streams east of the 98th Meridian. The permit also authorizes discharges from both fracking sites and conventional drilling off the Texas coast into the Gulf of Mexico.
And, even if Shrub or the Donald was the enabler, Dear Leader or Warmonger Joe was/is the non-reverser.
Oh, and Alamo City? You're west of the 98th Meridian. Enjoy that Eagle Ford taste in your water. Austin, you're luckier (if such water doesn't gum up treatment plants).
West Texas? The Pecos is already a dump in many areas because of lack of TCEQ management. Plus, this year, like last? It's so drought hit there IS NO RIVER aboveground in many places. So, the future "river" will simply be an oil toxic waste dump.
That picture is from Inside Climate News, of the Pecos in Reeves County (I-20; county seat, Pecos), and will more and more be the Pecos' future in a world of continuing climate changes. Now picture that with running water, but with an oil-based sheen on top. Then, picture that running halfway out of water again, but still having that sheen on top.
