The Bureau of Land Management is instructing employees in the field to help companies find uses for oil field wastewater, such as for agriculture, beyond injecting it underground permanently.
The new BLM policy is the latest step in a debate about what to do with the billions of gallons of wastewater produced every year. Decades of deep injection have resulted in earthquakes, geyser-like well blowouts and ground swelling. Some water managers in Texas worry that if the practice continues at the current rate, groundwater resources could get contaminated.
The move comes as the Trump administration’s EPA is also working on a regulation to make it easier for companies to treat and reuse the water.
The wastewater, often referred to as “produced water,” “salt water” or “brine,” comes up with oil and gas at well sites. The byproduct is many times saltier than seawater, often has chemicals added during drilling and fracking and can be radioactive.
