Texas Railroad Commission to Remove Permitting Requirement If Operators Recycle

MyWestTexas is reporting:

The new rules, which will take effect April 15, are designed to eliminate the need for a recycling permit if operators are recycling fluids on their own leases or transferring those fluids to another operator's lease for recycling. The new rules also identify recycling permit application requirements and reflect exiting standard field conditions for recycling permits.

There has been a lot of talk about all the water that is used by the fracking shale oil industry and how it might be particularly problematic in drought-prone south Texas.

So, quick, an open book test: how much water, on a percent basis, is used by the fracking industry in the entire state of Texas? Choose from the following:

a) 20%

b) 30%

c) 40%

d) way more than 50%

The answer is at the linked site. If the link is broken, oh, well.

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I'm really blown away by this -- here we have a regulatory agency that is willing to treat these guys like adults. Everyone wants you to recycle; we should make it as simple as possible; remove the obstacles. So the first obstacle we will remove is the process of getting a permit. Hey, just "git 'er done." I'm sure if anyone screws up the recycling the state will come in and punish the bad boys, but let's not make folks get a permit for doing the right thing. I know in cities where recycling is required, folks don't have to get a permit to recycle their personal garbage.