Lawmakers rush to stop 'catastrophic-level event' at Texas oil fields

quote:

---

There is increasing alarm about West Texas oil fields that continue to produce toxic water leaks.

The latest event was detected in Crane County in early December, when brine water poured out of the earth and over ranchland, Marfa Public Radio reported. The well wasn't plugged until Jan. 29, and the remediation project cost $2.5 million.

The water contained 154,000 chloride parts per million and at times flowed at 330 barrels, or 13,860 gallons, per hour, "creating a marsh-like scene," Mitch Borden reported. It was not always clear where it was coming from.

It took nine days to identify two wells and multiple other sources of the water. The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the oil and gas industry in the Lone Star State, dug and lined 20 containment pits and had vacuum trucks remove the water.

---

quote:

---

"[TRC and Bureau of Economic Geology researchers] have what you call a war room to try to figure out what's going on in this area. It has unusual geology and unusual water flows," RRC deputy executive director Danny Sorrells said. "We want to get to the bottom of this and stop it."

Crane County is in the middle of the Permian Basin, which covers 75,000 square miles in Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. The county is hundreds of miles from El Paso and San Antonio. Fourteen miles to the north in neighboring Ector County is Odessa, of "Friday Night Lights" fame.

"If we don't stop this now we are going to have complete and utter ecological devastation anywhere we've had historic oil and gas wells," Stogner said.

---