June 2021

• Past PW Seminar Videos (w/ CC) now available online. The next Virtual Seminar is at 10:00 a.m. on July 9. Get details on the complete series or register here.

April 2021

• New Virtual Seminar Series on Produced Water Treatment & Reuse starting May 14. Get details on the complete series or register here.

September 2020

• Water Quality Guidelines For Produced Water Recycling from the Produced Water Society
• September 28 GWPC's Annual Forum. Last year, the GWPC published the national Produced Water Report: Regulations, Current Practices, and Research Needs, which is an excellent resource on produced water.
• September 9 PWWG Meeting. This meeting was very well attended via Zoom. It had been a year since the last meetng so there was a broad range of topics and discussion. Because there is so much activity we decided to have both technical focus meetings and policy/regulatory meetings in the coming months.
  Agenda | Meeting Recap | Slides and documents

May 2020

• The O&G Produced Water and Waste Recycling and Reuse Act was signed into law by Governor Stitt. Sponsored by Senator Rader and Representatives O'Donnell, Davis, and McBride, the Act encourages the important efforts of PW recycling & reuse in OK by alleviating much of the uncertainty regarding ownership of PW when extracted during O&G operations. The Act:
  • defines terms
  • declares legislative findings on oil and gas produced water and waste
  • establishes ownership of subterranean water and constituent elements
  • construes clause
  • declares ownership, rights and responsibilities of certain persons for oil and gas produced water and waste
  • establishes responsibility for certain actions with oil and gas produced water and waste
  • provides that certain persons are not liable in tort for certain actions regarding use of recycled water or treated constituents
  • authorizes disposal of produced water and waste with certain permitting
  • establishes applicability of Oklahoma Brine Development Act to certain oil and gas produced water and waste
  • is effective November 1, 2020
• May 11 EPA finalized its report on PW management in aSummary of Input on O&G Extraction Wastewater Management Practices Under the Clean Water Act. The report is an update to the EPA's May 2019 draft report summarizing input from stakeholders regarding management of produced water from onshore oil and gas extraction activities. The final report provides updated information reflecting input received from states, tribes and stakeholders. The Agency is still determining what, if any, next steps should be taken regarding produced water management under the Clean Water Act. Public input, existing effluent guidelines, and other related information is available on the EPA's website.

August 2019

• August 29 PWWG Meeting. Jacobs completed the Feasibility Study that took a deeper look into PW treatment & transfer for recycling and current forced evaporation technologies and presented its findings at the meeting. The Working Group considered how it can best contribute to solving these problems over the long term.

December 2018

• Brackish Water: Legislative changes this past Session (HB3405) have given OWRB authority to permit water wells in the brackish water zones. Formerly, water wells in formations where water >5,000 mg/l TDS could not be completed and had to be plugged or protective of fresh water zones. Now wells may be completed in those brackish zones of 5,000 to 10,000 mg/l TDS for industrial use such as O&G or potentially for drinking water made potable through advanced treatment. Rule amendments to Title 785 OWRB Chapters 30 and 35 are proposed and will be finalized in January and sent to the Legislature this spring for approval.
• Discussions have begun from an informal group of government and university professionals looking into the possibility of delineating the base of treatable water maps and more precisely, to characterize the brackish water resources in Oklahoma using exisiting well log data. Such maps and information could be useful as a potential water source for both O&G operations now and municipal desal in the future. Industry has shown some interest in supporting this effort.

November 2018

• Members of the PWWG were invited to the OWRB this month with representatives from the USBR Feasibility Study team to hear a preliminary assessment of the findings from the Study and discuss other current issues in the state regarding produced water. The intent of this meeting was to consider some potential initiatives for the path forward. The USBR Feasibilty Study will be completed soon; slated for release in spring of 2019.

July 2018

• New Mexico and EPA officials announced an agreement yesterday to look at regulations on how oil field wastewater might be reused, particularly in arid states where groundwater and surface water are increasingly scarce.
• EPA begins produced water study that will take a holistic look at how EPA, states and stakeholders regulate and manage wastewater from the oil and gas industry
• Blind sample testing of produced water will be occuring this July. Our goal is to get a broad snapshot of water quality in the both the Miss-Lime and STACK plays. While this small sample set (8 samples) certainly will not be definitive, it should help our study develop an informed comparative analysis of water quality variability between the plays and may point out potential issues, or perhaps alleviate some concerns, regarding blended use of Miss-Lime water to frack STACK wells.
  The feasibility study is progressing on schedule; barring any unforeseen setbacks, we anticipate a draft report out by this fall and should be finalized well before the grant completion date of March 2019.

March 2018

• Technical workshops were held January 16-17 with industry specialists to discuss produced water reuse via pipeline transfer and evaporation solutions as opposed to injection disposal.
  See Presentations and Workshop Summary

December 2017

• Feasibility study partners tour Poseidon Saltwater Evaporation Facility
  
• Phase 2 Begins.
  USBR grant contracting has been completed and the 18 month study begins in earnest. Project study partners will now focus on several aspects following the initial high-level scoping study of the state's produced water (PW) challenges. Building on the most encouraging leads from Phase 1 study:
  • Investigation of the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of the transfer of PW from the state's Mississippi Lime play to the central Oklahoma plays for reuse in oil and gas operations.
  • Investigation of technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of current PW evaporation technologies on a wide scale as a PW management option.

May 2017

• Phase 2 Awarded. $150,000 Federal (matched with $150,000 Local Cost-Share - In Kind) PWWG's proposal to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Title XVI WaterSMART Grants to fund a deeper look at some of Phase 1 more promising findings. Project Partners include: OWRB, GWPC, EDF, and BEG-UT.

April 2017

• Study Finalized Download Full Report | Summary Handout

March 2017

• PWWG Meeting Agenda | Minutes | Presentation
• 2017 Legislative Session
  
  • SB 285 – (Schulz) Oklahoma Brine and Produced Water Development Act, and treats produced water as brine under the act. - Available for consideration and amendments during 2018 legislative session.
  • SB 287 (Griffin) clarifying Clean Water Act jurisdiction of state agencies to handle permitting of PW discharges. - Signed by Governor
  • SB 475 – (Schulz) Expands tax collections on skim oil to treat salt water from produced water the same. - Failed Deadline – April 27, 2017. Available for consideration and amendments during 2018 legislative session.
  • SB 743 (Schulz) creates the Oil and Gas Produced Water Recycling and Reuse Act, requires OCC to identify produced water as hazardous waste and develop rules for recycling and reuse of such waste. - Available for consideration and amendments during 2018 legislative session.