Railroad Commissioner candidate proposes ‘water conservation plan’ for fracking

AUSTIN—Amid concerns over drought and earthquakes, Steve Brown, the Democrat running for Railroad Commissioner, proposed a plan Tuesday that would incentivize water reuse projects, increase local control in groundwater permitting and phase out permits for new hydraulic fracturing wastewater disposal wells.

The amount of water used in drilling—about 40,000 Olympic size pools each year statewide, according to the Texas Water Development Board—puts an “unsustainable burden on local municipalities, farmers and landowners,” Brown said.

Ryan Sitton, the Republican nominee in the race, called the proposals “out of touch and not carefully constructed to consider consequences and the impacts on our economy.”

The Railroad Commission is responsible for regulating oil and gas in the state.

Several years of drought and a series of earthquakes in North Texas that some believe were caused by nearby disposal wells (drillers inject frack waste product into disposal wells) have raised concerns about water use in drilling.

Brown, former chairman of the Democratic Party in Fort Bend, proposed his “water conservation plan” for the agency, which aims to eliminate freshwater fracking by 2020. The changes would preserve water resources and not be cost prohibitive to the industry, he said.

The plan calls for tapping the Rainy Day Fund for $50 million to use toward research and development grants for businesses creating technologies to recycle frack water, reuse wastewater and create less water intensive methods for drilling. Brown also suggested tax credits for operators who use recycled wastewater.

The commission would gradually phase out permits for injection wells with no new disposal wells receiving permits by 2020, the plan said.

Drilling operators would be required to get permits from local groundwater conservation districts to extract water, according to the plan. The water usage would be reported monthly and groundwater districts would be allowed to protest injection well permits, the plan said.

Sitton, a Houston oil and gas businessman and engineer, rejected the proposals. The industry is already increasing its recycled water use and adding regulation would be damaging to production, he said.

The election is in November. The commissioner will join current commissioners Christi Craddick and David Porter on the regulatory panel.