A local citizen sent me a newspaper clipping about water dumping in Robertson County aka Booger County with this comment.
The RRC seems to be protecting the oil company, as usual.
So the constable catches a subcontractor of Anadarko Drilling (Remember them? Matt Carmichael of Anadarko (audio files in wmv & mpg)) dumping lots of “foul” smelling water into a creek but the Texas Railroad Commission said it was all okay.
This is why we need the EPA to step in. Our state regulators are monumental failures.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
TCEQ in over their head?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-gallay/gas-industry-spin-cant-co_b_1392676.html
HELP
HELP!!!!!!!!! We ask for your help, that RRC is out of control, we need Dr. Al at the EPA———HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have heard that Anadarko is one of the GasHoles that, if you complain to them about something, they will file criminal charges on you. But, if you complain to the RRC, the above type thing will happen, nothing. It’s scary in Tx!
If the deputy stopped on the bridge to check for illegal dumping, that means he’s seen illegal dumping before. Cops don’t just check something out if there’s no real reason to bother with it.
The article also said that the TRRC tested the water, but ‘did not find a high level of ‘contaminants’. What the reporter should have asked was two questions: Was the what the deputy found illegal and #2, what did the TRRC test for? Just saying contaminates doesn’t really help any. The reporter could have asked this next question, but I already know the answer: Where did the testing occur? No, it wasn’t from the pit, it was from the stream. Can’t be testing fluids that hasn’t been diluted, now can we?
But there’s still yet another problem here. The TRRC doesn’t test anything to see what’s in it, they test to see what’s not in it. At the very most, the water was tested for BTEX, but I’ll bet that it was only tested for chlorides. Fairly difficult to find something that you don’t actually look for.
It’s really too bad that the Sunset Review gave the TRRC 10 more years of life. What a waste.
Oh Tim—how right you are!!! The RRC never (to my knowledge) tests for anything except SAAAAALT WAAAAATER, like you say chlorides. Laughter abounds!
Hum! “Foul smelling”–by the cops! Have you ever smelled salt water? Go get you a fresh glass of water from the tap–then get some Mortons table salt and put a bunch of it in the fresh drinking water, stir it around–then take a sniff of it! Huh, no smell, assuming you have non-smelling drinking water in Texas! There is something wrong here.
I have heard that there is bunch of dumping of water from produced water tanks all around Booger County!
How could the Commission said that it was okay?
As the old saying goes, when the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, then all your problems had better be nails. The TRRC was originally formed to regulate oil prices, and as Industry grew, so did the role of the TRRC. Like most other, if not all, regulatory agencies, We The People have this ridiculous and unending belief these agencies are actually doing what they are supposed to be doing. Industry over the last few decades took advantage of this, and then through lobbying and promotion and support of sympathetic politicians, wrote most of the regulations. The politicians continued to have their campaigns and re-election efforts supported, and in return, the politicians voted however the Industry told them to vote.
The mistake that most people make, in my opinion, is thinking politicians actually represent the people’s best interests, when time and time again, there’s plenty of evidence that the politicians support whomever is buying their vote and voice.
Shit Runs Downhill, from the Politicos to the Commission, then on to you………………….and Me. My Advise…Get the Good Toilet Paper at Waly-world next time!
There are discharge permits that have allowed produced water to be discharged in the past. The RRC discontinued the permitting of produced water several years ago, mainly because of EPA and just didn’t seem right, even though some produced water has no chlorides (Morrow)and little harmful chemicals. Now it must be on a case by case or incident basis. The Feds still give operators tidal discharge permits though.
we have a commercial disposal well in the little town of Nocona,how do we fight this foul ,dirty thing ,HELP
So sorry to hear that beautiful Nocona is facing this “foul, dirty thing.”
Here is a template created to help fight injection/disposal wells.
You will need to get a tremendous grassroots effort from all your neighbors in Nocona. The best results have come from door-to-door and neighbor-to-neighbor.