On August 11th, Commission Shift policy manager Julie Range attended a hearing of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources to give testimony on SB 1145, relating to the oversight of produced water by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and HB 49, relating to fluid oil and gas waste.
She spoke about how the TCEQ should establish rigorous protective water quality standards that ensure hazardous components of produced water are removed by treatment, and their proposed are rules are insufficient and put human health at risk. As long as operators are allowed to claim trade secret chemicals in hydraulic fracturing, we will not have the information we need to ensure safe beneficial reuse.
Larry Linenschmidt, who is the executive director of faith-based nonprofit Hill Country Institute, also gave testimony. He spoke about transparency surrounding the fluids from produced water as well as the health and environmental impacts of PFAS, or forever chemicals, present in polluted fracking water.
View his full comments as well as follow-up questions from committee vice chair Sen. Judith Zaffirini here.
