The Texas Water Journal has published a new article in Volume 16, titled “Failed P-13 Water Wells: The Real Orphan Wells and How Texas is Denying Ownership,” by Sarah E. Stogner and Ronald T. Green.
Texas law recognizes that there are environmental implications when drilling a well through freshwater aquifers, and legislation mandates various state agencies oversee wells based on the original reason the well was drilled.
According to the authors, wells drilled with the intent of discovering and extracting oil and gas are overseen by the Railroad Commission of Texas, while wells drilled for water supply are overseen by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Under current law, jurisdiction changes when a well that was originally developed for oil and gas purposes is converted to a water well.
Currently, both the Railroad Commission of Texas and the Texas Water Development Board disavow jurisdiction over these wells, meaning that Texas provides no regulatory oversight for failed P-13 wells, the authors said. This paper reviews the current state of regulatory oversight of failed P-13 wells in Texas, with recommendations to clarify the regulatory dilemma.
Read the full article to learn more.
The journal — an online, peer-reviewed journal published by the nonprofit, the Texas Water Journal, in cooperation with the Texas Water Resources Institute, a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife Research that brings together expertise from across the Texas A&M University System, the Bureau of Economic Geology in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, and the Water and the Environment Research Center in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at Texas Tech University — publishes papers as they are completed.
It is devoted to the timely consideration of Texas water resources management, research and policy issues from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates science, engineering, law, planning and other disciplines. It also provides updates on key state legislation and policy changes by Texas administrative agencies.
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