Produced Water Status Quo Solutions: Trying to Put Toothpaste Back in the Tube

The toothpaste’s out of the tube. The horse is out of the barn. The water’s under the bridge.

Choose your cliché; they all add up to the fact that there is now a proven methodology to take the by-product water from oilfields or manufacturing, transform that water, and then apply it to the surrounding land for conservation or agriculture. No more dangerous injection wells or ineffective evaporation ponds. No more dusty fields without water. No more barren vegetation. No more ag drains on the aquifer.

Yep, ever since Encore Green and BUWA teamed up with Conservation By-Design™ there’s just a big ol’ mess of toothpaste piled up on the bathroom sink. And yet -- many engineers, oil field executives, and manufacturing plant managers are still huddled around trying to scoop the paste back into the tube. They hire experts and spend all kinds of money to try to slide that paste back in. But it’s not working.

It’s time to embrace having enough water for the ranch, the grassland, and the aquifer.  Give us a call – whether you own land with oil wells, manage those wells or manufacturing plants, or you just want to see our land have a continual drink of water.

Time to move on. Give us a call.

Got Water?

The ground out here in the West is thirsty. Problem is, there isn’t any new additional water to put out onto the ground. Or is there?

Tomorrow, Monday , October 29th, Encore Green, LLC is changing all that. Through a process called Conservation By-Design ™,  oilfield by-product water is cleaned to match the surrounding soil for optimal vegetation growth. 

At 1:30pm just outside Cheyenne, Encore Green will be applying beautifully clean water onto the grassland of a local rancher.  

We need water. Now we have some.

For more information or if you’d like to visit the water applying event, contact Jeff Holder at 818.470.0285 or director@beneficialusewater.com.

This Changes Everything

In less than 3 days, Encore Green is going to apply barrels of beneficial-use water onto grassland of a Cheyenne rancher. Until recently, that water went by a lot of bad names – “wastewater” or “produced water.” It had come out of an oil well and, like it’s hole companion crude oil, it was in need of refining. 

So, Encore Green jumped through the regulatory, economic, and scientific hoops to first test the grassland soil for its makeup and then clean the oilfield water to match those soil specs. And then, just for good measure, re-tested the water to make sure it was clean and ideal for vegetation growth. 

Now, on Monday the 29th, the water is going to be applied to the land. 

Think for just a moment about our arid western lands watered in this way. Could you use some more water on your land? Could you use more water in your aquifer since it’s not going for ag or frackkng? Don’t you think the land desires this kind of stewardship?

If you’re in the Cheyenne area, drop by. We’d love to say hi. For an invitation, just email Jeff Holder at director@beneficialusewateralliance.com.  Because after Monday, everything changes!

#beneficialusewater   #green

What the EPA Gets Right

While the IRS is probably our least favorite government agency, many may feel the EPA runs a close second. 

But -- here’s something that the Clean Water Act and the EPA get right for the people out West.

The Clean Water Act says the by-product water from an oilfield cannot be applied to the land. 

HOWEVER – if that land is west of the 98thMeridian, you can apply the water if it’s beneficial-use to the land. It’s noted as Subpart E of the law and allows some amazing opportunities for conservation and agriculture in our arid and semi-arid states.

The 98thMeridian – you can google it – essentially runs in the US from the middle of North Dakota, all the way down through Texas. It covers the arid western states that, thanks to new technology and Encore Green’s Conservation By-Design methodology, can have much-needed water to create grasslands for erosion mitigation or for agriculture. 

The land is thirsty and the EPA knows that. This Subpart E, should be considered the BigPart E for Ecology because with this exception to the Law we can have plenty of water to water our land.

Conservation By-Design. Ready to water a land near you.

#EPA #beneficialusewater. #water. #green

What You Got Against Oilfield By-Product Water?

Oilfield by-product water is bad, bad, bad. Right? What if we told you it could get cleaned up, hair combed, and put on a suit and tie? What if this water that -- frankly, we have way too much of -- could become beneficial-use water and used for agriculture and conservation?

You probably wouldn’t believe us. 

But, well, that doesn’t mean it’s not true. 

See, oilfield by-product water is in need of cleaning because of its makeup. There are a number of technologies, primarily thermal or reverse osmosis, which can pull out the undesirable elements and keep in the good things, like the right amount of nitrogen. You end up with  clean water that is perfectly matched to the surrounding land. 

Encore Green’s Conservation By-Design™ provides the patent-pending methodology to these technologies in order to apply the water for good use. And yet, everyone from placard-carrying environmentalists to the regulators to the regular person on the street is suffering from a prejudice against this water. And this is despite scientific data on the post-cleaned water’s makeup, declaring it clean and ideal to apply to the land or to have cattle drink.

America loves rags to riches story. We like the story of the boy or girl who lives on the wrong side of town, struggles, but eventually grows up to be the mayor of the city. It’s a great story, right? 

Well, that’s the story of oilfield produced water. It’s was born on the wrong side of the oilfield, but it’s gotten an education and is quite virtuous now. 

Why hang on to old ideas that are keeping this water from being the solution to our arid land?

#green #water #beneficialusewater

If It Quacks Like A Duck

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then we say it’s a duck, right? 

But when it comes to oilfield by-product water that has been cleaned and tested, proving scientifically that the water is ideally matched to go out on our lands or watering troughs, we say that it’s still “not a duck.”

What does the water have to do? Be tested? Well, using the Conservation By-Design™ method it is tested. If it fails, it’s cleaned up until it passes the test and gets an A+. 

Yet, we are victims of our own past and prejudices. Oilfield by-product water can be cleaned and put out on the land to grow crops, mitigate erosion, water herds, and any other ag or conservation task.

But we have to decide that if it looks like clean water, smells like clean water, and tests like clean water – it’s clean water!

When’s a Good Time to Make the Oil Industry Better?

The oil industry is a boom or bust proposition – always has been and probably always will be. Despite 5 year plans, we know that the market is volatile because the variables are diverse and out of any one industry’s control.

But still. . . . 

Can’t we quit saying that the time isn’t right to find a better solution for our oilfield by-product water that we’re injecting into the ground? 

Injection has a mountain of problems and an uncertain regulatory approved future. 

Yet we find that – 

> When oil is booming, no one wants to worry about changing ANYTHING. Come on, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

> When oil is busting, everyone is in panic mode and the decision makers are consumed with cutting expenses and what they’re supposed to tell the stockholders. Nobody has time to adopt a better way of doing things – it’s survival mode.

> And then, there’s the time we’re in now. Not busting, but not really booming – certainly not as big we all want. But even with a steady-as-she-goes market, we STILL don’t want to find a better solution than the status quo when it comes to the uncleaned, by-product water that we’re forcing back into the land.

So, when will we adopt a better way? 

·     When the regulators stop granting permits and there’s nowhere to put the by-product water? 

·     When injection causes some catastrophe like an earthquake or contamination and there’s nowhere to put the water? 

Why don’t we use this time when we aren’t busting or booming to figure out a better path before we end up with water that’s all dressed up but nowhere to go!

5 Things We Still Don’t Know About Injection Wells

Injection wells are our go-to solution to handle oilfield and other industrial by-product water.

The water leaves the oil field or manufacturing plant and it’s pretty much ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ Heck, we even say that we have disposed of the by-product water.

But not really. We just moved it. Kicked the problem down the road a little bit.

We think we know a lot about these injection wells. But after decades of use, no one can truly answer these 5 questions:

1. Where Does the Water Go?

Yes, it goes down the hole, we get that. But then where? By-product water doesn’t always obey the rules and seeps and moves through crevices (it is injected under pressure after all…) and has been known to find its way into our groundwater.

So, we put in monitoring wells around the injection wells, but the naughty by-product water doesn’t always obey and show up on the monitor. Where the heck is it? There’s no one that can give a definitive answer – good guesses, sure.

We really don’t know. 

2. What’s Going On Down There?

For the injection well, we have very nice 3D animation to show what’s going on. We have technical papers from very smart people with Dr. in front of their names that explain what the water is doing underground. But really it only explains the plan. Not the reality. In running a business, budgets are good to know – actuals are even better. Where’s the actuals for by-product water?

If we are so sure we know what’s going on underneath our feet, why does the same E&P that is injecting water — confident they know what’s going on under the surface — sometimes drill a dry oil well? We thought they knew what was going on down there.

We really don’t know.

3. What’s the Makeup of That Water, Really?

There’s a lot of reports about this by-product water and it’s questionable chemical makeup. The producer of this by-product water could help squash those voices by giving us information. If the water’s okay, why are we not told what’s in it? Why the secrecy – is the water being trucked to Area 51 or something?

We really don’t know.

4. How Much Water is Down There?

We can’t find an actual report on the amount of industrial by-product water that has been injected into the ground. It would have to be in the trillions of gallons for the last few years. Maybe we just haven’t discovered this report and it’s something that we do know. If anyone knows, email us at: director@beneficialusewateralliance.com

But from where we sit,  we really don’t know.

5.  When Will We Be Out of Room?

We keep putting the by-product water down the injection well. When is there no more room?  Or worse – when will there be consequences of so much by-product, uncleaned water that we just can’t foresee?

We really don’t know.

BUT HERE’S WHAT WE DO KNOW

The Beneficial-Use Water Alliance, in association with Encore Green, has a way to turn this by-product water into beneficial-use water for ag and conservation. Today. Right now. In fact, Encore Green has already done it. 

Let’s rally around what we do know and not what we don’t! Because we’re smarter than to keep doing something when we really don’t know.

Can You Build A Grand Cathedral With Water?

Sometimes in our daily grind we need to stop and answer the question, Why?  

Why are we doing what we’re doing? Make the choices we’re making? Living the lives that we are living?

Now, the answers to that are many – as many people who might answer the questions. Here’s a perspective. Stop us if you’ve heard this one:

A man walked down the street and saw 3 bricklayers building a wall. He asked the first one, “What are you doing?

The first bricklayer replied, “I’m laying brick.”

He asked the second one, “What are you doing?”

The second bricklayer replied, “I’m making money.”

He asked the third one, “What are you doing?”

The third bricklayer said, “I’m building a grand cathedral!”

So, what are you doing? Making money? Keeping oil or water flowing through pipes? Moving something from here to there? 

At BUWA and Encore Green, we get that your job might be about efficiency and everything running smoothly. A new way of doing things sounds tough. 

Your eyes are on your paycheck, your bonus, and staying out of trouble with the boss.

Yet, what if you took that by-product water and built a “grand cathedral”? 

What if under your leadership, we cleaned up that water and put it on the ground for ag and conservation?

Your kids and grandkids would have water in the aquifer, land would be worth more irrigated than not, and we’d treat our natural resources a little more gently.

As for your efficiency, Encore Green’s methodology costs the same or less than your total cost to “dispose” of by-product water and your company is indemnified for the water’s liability.  

What are you waiting for? Let’s build a grand cathedral together.

You Want The Good News Or The Bad News First?

Okay, we’ll pick for you.

Here’s the bad news:

The aquifers – those places underground where we get water – are dangerously low in many regions and near growing cities. The aquifers provide water for industry, your house, your business, and the farmer who grows your food. Running dry is bad news.

Here’s the good news:

The oil and manufacturing industries have billions of by-product water that they inject in the ground or evaporate. In effect, throw it away. We’re talking billions of gallons a month.

Wait . . . how is that good news?

It’s good news because, today, industrial by-product doesn’t water haveto go down the drain. There is a good news solution. 

This by-product water can be cleaned and used for the agriculture industry to water crops. Beneficial-use water is the official name for it. If the aquifer water isn’t used for ag, then there’s more water available to come out of your kitchen tap.

So, we’re good. The problem is solved. We only have good news.

Well, there’s actually still some bad news. 

You see, change is hard to embrace. And Industry is content with the way things are, even though injection wells are responsible for increased seismic activity and when the water is put in the ground it doesn’t always stay where you tell it to. Industry knows that injection well permits are getting harder to come by. Industry knows that the injection wells are getting full. Industry knows that evaporation ponds are called skating rinks in many areas like Wyoming most of the year. 

And yet, industry is slow to embrace change. So, that’s the good news and the bad news. We thought you should know. Because this bad news can become good news with just one decision.

Here’s to clear thinking on the part of industry’s key decision makers. Let ‘em know we want good news.