In their 2021 paper, the researchers found the permits allowed 700 million gallons annually of untreated oil field wastewater to be dumped into small creeks and tributaries that cattle drank from.

At an industry conference in Midland this March, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Commissioner Emily Lindley encouraged oil and gas companies to apply for discharge permits.

Environmental Defense Fund senior scientist Cloelle Danforth and oil and gas attorney Nichole Saunders took issue with TCEQ’s approach in their comments on the draft permit.

In a 2020 journal article, Danforth and co-authors at Texas A&M University and the Endocrine Disruption Exchange in Colorado found that 86% of produced water chemicals lack toxicity data to complete a risk assessment.

Pennsylvania State University environmental engineer William Burgos and other researchers found elevated levels of salt and radioactive chemicals likely linked to the Marcellus Shale formation when they tested sediments from a reservoir more than 6 miles downstream of discharge points.

In a written statement, consortium Director Rusty Smith said it is establishing pilot projects to treat produced water in “closed loop” settings to understand its characteristics in the Permian Basin.

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