Oil & Gas Well Waste Pits
To the Editor:
A recent news article (at insideclimatenews.com) reported that the Texas House of Representatives Energy Resources Committee had held a public hearing on House Bill 4572 on April 14. That bill, filed by State Rep. Penny Morales Shaw, would require the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) to adopt rules regulating “mud and reserve pits” used by oil and gas well drillers and is intended to protect landowners and water resources. Rep. Morales Shaw represents parts of Houston and northwest Harris County.
Oil companies construct “mud pits” and “reserve pits” next to drilling rigs. Drilling fluids, sand, silt and wash water (used to clean drill pipe and equipment) are stored in the pits. The waste products can contain known carcinogens, including benzene and arsenic. In the past, the RRC has not required the pits to have impervious linings to prevent leeching of chemicals into the ground. The pits are usually filled in or covered over after drilling operations are completed. Drillers don’t have to get landowner permission to construct and use the pits or even notify the landowner of the pit(s). The pits can be an acre or more in size.
Waste pits can adversely impact not only the landowner who has a burial pit on his or her property but also adjoining landowners and landowners whose land has the same water table or run off. They can also reduce the value of land. No one wants to live on or buy land or live next to land that has toxic waste buried on it that can enter the water table or pollute surface water in years to come.
HB 4572 (text at www. capitol.texas.gov) would require the RRC to adopt rules that establish uniform siting, construction, sampling and closure standards for waste pits; bonding and groundwater monitoring requirements for using a pit for permanent burial of waste; and a requirement to obtain permission from the landowner before permanently burying waste and to provide a notice of the type and volume of waste to be buried. HB 4572 would also require a drilling company to file a written notice within 30 days after the permanent burial of waste with the county clerk that includes a legal description of the location of the pit and the type and volume of drilling waste in the pit.
In 2024, the RRC ( www. rrc.texas.gov) did adopt some new rules for waste pits that go into effect on July 1, 2025. The new rules will require drillers to register the location of waste pits with the RRC and close pits within one year after a well is drilled. Also, a pit will have to be lined to prevent seepage if it contains fluid with a “high concentration of total dissolved solids” (really bad stuff) or if groundwater is present within 50 feet of the bottom of the pit.
HB 4572 and a companion (identical) bill (SB 3017) filed in the Texas Senate by Sen. José Menéndez from San Antonio basically have a “snowball’s chance in Hell” of getting enacted into law. Most oil companies of course oppose almost anything that involves regulation of their activities. Most Legislators and the Railroad Commission members tend to side with the oil and gas industry. Neither State Senator Kolkhorst nor State Representative Kitzman have co-sponsored these bills.
Oil and gas wells can be both a blessing and a curse to rural landowners. Landowners, regardless of whether they own the mineral rights to the oil and gas under their land, have little control over what oil companies can do on the land. The “standard” oil and gas leases that most landowners or their predecessors in title signed 30 or so years ago (when drilling took off in the County), pretty well gave oil companies a “free hand” in using the leased property. Farmers, ranchers and people who live on rural property have almost no ability to influence state regulation of the activities of oil companies.
The objective of oil field companies is to get oil and gas produced as efficiently as possible (cheaply and quickly). The companies are usually not going to do things to protect landowners and underground and surface water that the RRC does not require. People who own only the minerals rights and not the surface of the land are also probably not inclined to do much to protect the surface owners from drilling and production damage.
County commissioners ( www.co.fayette.tx.us/page/ fayette.Commissioners.Court) and rural groundwater conservation district directors ( www. fayettecountygroundwater. com) have no authority to impose local regulations on oil and gas production. They do, as governmental bodies and elected officials, however have the ability to get the attention of state officials.
Most of these local officials are rural landowners themselves. They also are knowledgeable of the issues. Landowners should urge them to support state legislation and regulation that protects landowners and water resources and benefits the County as a whole.
Russell Friemel Fort Worth & Ellinger