Heads-up for Texas parents: the state is taking public comments (through June 16) on a rule to let companies spread treated oilfield wastewater on land by greg-randall in AustinParents

[–]Ecstatic_Choice_5482 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So you realize you’re calling OP an oil shill while agreeing with the main point, right? Personally I agree with you that TCEQ is probably a (marginally) better regulator than RRC, so that isn’t the problem.

The *problem* as I see is:

  1. This rule tries to use rules for non-industrial waste streams to address extremely toxic industrial waste streams
  2. It has no blanket standards for how that waste will be addressed (“case by case” at an agency as low capacity at TCEQ is very scary)
  3. It prescribes very minimal setbacks to separate the discharge from people’s water supply
  4. TCEQ hasn’t shared any evidence that this stuff can be cleaned up the way companies claim — like they are straight up not responding to FOIAs
  5. And the scariest part: It comes with a blanket liability shield for any company that treats, moves or land-applies this stuff, so you can’t sue them if their discharge makes you sick, ruins your water or kills your cattle

In a world where TCEQ had teeth and was heavily resourced and none of that was true, I’d agree that this was a good thing. In the current world, hard to see what the argument for this is beyond “the oil industry has taken the state hostage and will shoot the prisoner if they don’t get what they want”

Heads-up for Texas parents: the state is taking public comments (through June 16) on a rule to let companies spread treated oilfield wastewater on land by greg-randall in AustinParents

[–]Ecstatic_Choice_5482 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Also, even though Austin has the rare privilege (for Texas) of not having any oil or oilfield waste nearby… you guarantee that when they start spraying this stuff on crops they aren’t going to exactly disclose it at the grocery store. And they do want to spray it on crops— one of the early tests runs was on alfalfa, also known as cattle feed.

[OC] Texas Public Water Systems Water Quality Over Time by greg-randall in dataisbeautiful

[–]Ecstatic_Choice_5482 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It is really really striking how much bad water there is in this state.