It’s Your Move, Wyoming

Have you ever been outside around twilight and your eyes keep adjusting to the fading light so you don’t realize just how dark it’s getting? All of a sudden you say to yourself, “Hey, it’s dark out here.” Well, our Wyoming drilling friends, that’s what’s going on with oilfield by-product water and how our regulators are handlings things.

Forget what it says on government letterhead about the role, responsibilities, and  the agenda of our regulators. Very simply, there are many (but not all) bureaucrats in government roles who are determined to shut down drilling. And figuratively speaking, it’s about 8 o’clock on a summer night and we don’t realize that the light is just about all gone. 

There’s a complex chess game going on, while Wyoming oil companies are busy playing checkers. The forces that want to shut down drilling have realized that the lever that keeps the drilling and oil production reduced or dwindling is very simply the by-product water that comes from the oil well. 

If you can’t do something with all this water, you can’t drill. It’s just that simple. 

So, since our regulators can’t politically block drilling directly, they are actively blocking green, conservation-minded initiatives to clean up the by-product water to become what we in Wyoming call, “beneficial-use.”  States have different names, but we just mean water that can be used for something other than throwing away by injecting back in the ground. 

The very people tasked with the job of protecting our land, water, and air are happy to allow by-product water that is of unknown makeup to be injected back into a hole in the ground. They are happy to block all new green initiatives that help deal with this water so that a (at best) risky “disposal” method can continue. Meanwhile, voices are calling for disclosure of what’s in the water that is being allowed dangerously close to our ground water in these “injection wells.” So, in this way, oil production continues to cause collateral damage and gives ammunition to the voices to stop drilling all together.

You see, protecting the environment is not the end goal of some of these regulators. And that’s the chess game we’re all playing, whether we realize it or not. The end goal is to shut down drilling in Wyoming. 

So, Wyoming, it’s your move. 

If you want to talk about this, give a shout. We’re already up on this soapbox, so we’re happy to keep talking. 

Director@BeneficialUseWaterAlliance.com, 818.470.0285

Water Is The Biggest #BigIdeas2019

LinkedIn has launched #BigIdeas2019 to track what we all see as the big ideas for this coming year. Well, that’s easy to answer.

We have seen the future and the future is water. And by “future” we mean later this afternoon.

You see, you’ll want a drink of water sometime today. And tomorrow as well.  We need water. We all know that.

So, what’s the big idea? 

To explain it, we have to back up a little. For the arid, western states, the end goal is to protect the aquifer so we have water to drink. How we do that is the Big Idea. 

To protect the aquifer, we need to first see who all takes water out of it. Well, agriculture and conservation take water out of the aquifer. But, we want to also keep eating, so agriculture needs to keep getting water. And we need to protect the soil and the land for future use, so conservation needs to keep getting water out, too.

Here’s the big idea: Let’s give agriculture and conservation a NEW source of water.

Let’s take the BILLIONS of gallons of by-product water that comes from oilfields and manufacturing, clean it up to match the needs of the surrounding soil, and let’s use THAT water for agriculture and conservation, instead of the aquifer. Vegetation grows. Carbon is reduced. The aquifer is protected.

Conservation By-Design is a new method to accomplish just that. That’s the big idea – but here’s the thing: Encore Green, LLC  has used their Conservation By-Design method in a pilot project to turn the idea into reality. So, it’s actually the #BigReality2019.

Ready to put the biggest idea of 2019 to work? Give us a call, 818.470.0285 or director@beneficialusewateralliance.com.

#bigideas2019

Going (Literally) Green

Are you trying to “go green” in the new year? Well, Encore GREEN already has gone green in their solution for oilfield by-product water. They are literally going green, like really green. You know, like the color green in your kid’s crayon box. 

If you’re in the western oil producing states, take a look at the land surrounding the oil wells. Go ahead, look. What do you see?  

You see brown. You see cracked, dry, thirsty brown dirt that doesn’t see the color green because it rarely receives much water. But if you look next to those oil wells, you’ll see millions of gallons of oil well by-product water right there, where the soil so urgently needs water. 

Encore Green is all about cleaning that very water by removing the elements that won’t help the soil grow vegetation. Once cleaned, the brown dirt has green grassland. Then, you got vegetation. If you got vegetation, what do you then have? Think back to your 5th grade science book: if you have vegetation, you have oxygen. And with extra oxygen comes less carbon.

So, by using the GREEN solution of Encore Green, the world gets less carbon, more oxygen, and the barren wastelands become an oasis.

That’s the solution. Give us a call and we’ll start your land, your oil well, or your by-production water going green.  818.470.0285 or Director@BeneficialUseWaterAlliance.com

Got Skin in the ‘Water Game’?

We think we might be on to something. You see, we meet all types of people from all types of jobs, as we are wrangling all types of stakeholders together to transform industrial water into beneficial-use for ag and conservation. 

We find a lot of people smiling and nodding and if we had a dollar for each expression of moral support, we’d be dining at much better restaurants these days. But, we think we have realized one of the big obstacles to transforming these Western states by putting an abundance of water on our land:

Too many people who are involved have no skin in the game.

Ever hear that joke, at breakfast you can see commitment. The chicken contributed the eggs and participated, but the pig contributed the bacon and that was commitment.

We have too many chickens in the water game. 

We call them stakeholders, but they don’t have a personal stake in seeing the West solve its water issues.

> They pull a paycheck each week, even if they keep throwing away billions of gallons of water.

> They get their bonus if they keep the by-product water machine running – not if they innovate and stop injecting questionable water into a questionable hole in the ground.

> They get grants and pilot projects going, which proves all sorts of things, but changes nothing. Except it sets up their next grant, which does nothing. Except it sets up, well, you get the idea.

What we need are people who will catch the vision of what the West looks like if the oilfield by-product water is cleaned up and creates green vegetation where there’s now only a lot of brown dust.

In short, do you have skin in the game?

If we keep doing things exactly as we do – and suffer the consequences of potentially contaminated ground water and a dry aquifer – do you care?

We have skin in the game. Come on, join our team. Give us a call:

818.470.0285 or director@beneficialusewateralliance.com.

What Injection Wells Haven’t Done For You Lately (Caution: Snarky Commentary)

So, you think injecting the oilfield by-product water’s a good idea? Well, other than putting off until tomorrow what you should deal with today, it’s not really doing that much for you:

> Injection doesn’t dispose of the by-product water. You just change its address from oilfield to the injection well. Pretty soon you’ll have to deal with what that water’s been doing underground and what it’s made of. But for today, sure, go ahead and tell yourself you disposed of it. 

> Injection doesn’t know the water’s makeup when you shove it into the ground. You know, since it’s a trade secret and all that. Only a couple of engineers from the oil company know for sure what chemicals are now underground. And they’re not talking.

> Injection doesn’t know where the water really goes once in the ground. Sure, close your eyes and turn on the injection pump. But injection can’t guarantee you it stays in the well. Sometimes water in the vast underground caverns gets a mind of its own. And no, it won’t apply for a permit from the EPA to wander around underground.

> Injection is a poor solution which continues to perpetuate the idea that drilling is bad for the environment. And, well, you’re injecting or allowing to be injected water of unknown chemical makeup into a dark hole with no way to know where it goes from there. So, if you don’t care about the future of drilling, go ahead and inject. 

> Injection has never made the water grow a single blade of grass. It hasn’t kept away erosion or provided livestock watering or growing of alfalfa. It hasn’t helped the environment by sending oxygen into the air. It hasn’t protected the aquifer by not using the aquifer water for ag or fracking. Conservation By-Design will tell you exactly what the water going on the land is made of and we’ll let everyone know, because the water will have been cleaned and scientifically matched to the surrounding soil. 

Not injecting and, instead, transforming that water into beneficial-use will do all that.

So, the choice is yours. I think you might see where we stand. How about you?

Win-Win-Win: As Long As Everyone’s Honest

At Encore Green and the Beneficial-Use Water Alliance, we have always said we’re wanting to create a win-win-win for stakeholders when it comes to transforming by-product water into beneficial-use water. And that’s still the goal. But this plan really only works if the stakeholders do what they say they are out to do. 

For instance, the oil companies want to do something with all the water that’s coming out of the oil well. So, they work with everyone to figure out the best way. We would be confused if the oil companies suddenly said they’ll just cap the oil well and go out of business. That’d be crazy, right? But they are in business and need to figure out their water problem. Them we understand.

The rancher/landowner is trying to figure out how to get more water on their arid ground. We’d be confused if they suddenly said that they didn’t want water and that they were okay with less yield and winnowed herds due to drought. That’d be crazy, right? But they are in business to grow things and they need to figure out their water problem. Them we understand.

The regulators are trying to protect the land and want to make sure that the oil and water are handled in the best way that will serve the land. They are, after all, by definition, setting out to ‘protect the environment.’ We’d be confused if they decided they only wanted the by-product water from the oil well to be thrown away (injection or evap ponds) and not used to help the environment. We’d be especially confused if the regulators didn’t want water that has been cleaned and now defined as beneficial-use to be put to, well, beneficial-use and used for conservation and ag.

We’d be confused. And to be honest, we ARE confused. Makes us think that the regulators might have a different agenda in mind than protecting the environment in the Western oil-producing states.

But maybe we’re wrong. We hope we’re wrong. We hope the regulators will prove that we’re wrong. We want all the stakeholders to win - including the environment.

If Dirt Could Talk

If dirt could talk, we know what it’d say. 

But, first, let’s back up. See that plot of land over there in the West with the oilfields?

Everyone says they know what’s best for that land. Industry says there’s valuable oil in it, so we should drill. The environmentalists and regulators say they know what’s best for that soil and they will decide, based upon current political wind-blowing. Land developers see buildings. Hikers see a trail.

Another way to ask this question is, “Who should be in charge of this land?” Or, an even better way to ask the question, “Who is the best STEWARD of the land?”   

Well, if dirt could talk, it would say that the land owner, rancher, and farmer should be in charge of the land because they inherently have a vested interest in the health of that land. They are the ones who will defend it and protect it. They have invested cold,hard cash to have the right to live on it and grow things on it. They have put in lots of sweat and resources to maintain it and make sure the land remains healthy. 

If dirt could talk, it’d say that it’d rather be growing things that benefit people and animals. It’d rather be producing oxygen and soaking up carbon. It’d rather be growing lush, green vegetation that delights the eye and the senses. It’d rather be a solution to our climate issues. It’d rather not sit bone dry with the wind blowing away its top layer. 

That’s why at BUWA and Encore Green, we start with soil science. What does the land need? We “ask” the dirt by conducting extensive testing. When we know what the dirt “says,” we then transform the by-product water into beneficial use water to match exactly what the soil needs. 

Today, the dirt is saying, “Can I have a drink of water?” 

If industry and the regulators would let the land be in charge and we start putting plentiful amounts of beneficial-use water on the land, we know what the dirt will say.

The dirt will say, “Thank you.”

WYSGA - Our New Partner!

Partnership Announced by Beneficial-Use Water Alliance and the Wyoming Stock Growers Association

Partnership Fosters Expansion of Beneficial-Use Water for Wyoming’s Ranchers

(Cheyenne)  Marvin Nash, Strategy Specialist for the Beneficial-Use Water Alliance (BUWA) and Jim Magagna, Executive Vice-President of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WYSGA), jointly announced their partnership to facilitate opportunities for ranchers throughout Wyoming to receive beneficial-use water for their agricultural needs. 

“At BUWA, we are bringing all the stakeholders together to take industrial by-product water and transform it into beneficial-use water to make sure the ranchers and landowners have useful water for their own ranch’s needs.Partnering with WYSGA allows us to help their members more effectively,” says Marvin Nash.

“We recognize how essential sufficient water is to Wyoming agriculture. We welcome the partnership with BUWA to make sure that water can be put to use on ranches, instead of disposing of the water,” says Jim Magagna.

BUWA’s sister company, Encore Green, LLC uses the patent-pending Conservation By-Design™ methodology to take industry by-production water, primarily from oil wells, and clean up the water to match the soil’s makeup on the rancher’s own land. The methodology has been proved and is built upon the need to scientifically test the makeup of both the surrounding soil and the by-product water across multiple data points. Once tested, the water cleaning plan is devised and the cleaning begins. Once cleaned, the water is re-tested for effectiveness, and then applied to the land.  

“There are very legitimate concerns about what happens to our environment. We hold that the land itself should be in charge of what happens to it. The one person that will make sure the land is protected is actually the rancher. That’s why any plan about transforming the by-product water needs the rancher in the center of it,” adds Marvin Nash.

Established in 1872, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association serves the Wyoming cattle industry by protecting its economic, legislative, regulatory, judicial, environmental, customs, and cultural interests. You can learn more at WYSGA.org.

Beneficial-Use Water Alliance brings the stakeholders – the oil industry, the regulators, the ranchers, the environmentalists, and landowners – together to transform the billions of gallons of by-product water into beneficial-use water for agriculture and conservation. You can learn more at BeneficialUseWaterAlliance.com.

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The World Needs More Cowboys

Recently, the University of Wyoming took some grief because of their slogan, “The World Needs More Cowboys.” 

Could someone please publish a list of politically correct things we can or cannot say because, well, nobody wants to get in trouble with the Thought Police.

Except Cowboys.

And that’s why we agree with the slogan and have discovered (the hard way) that when it comes to blazing trails about bringing water to our arid land in the West, we are surprisingly in short supply of true Cowboys (despite the many belt buckles and hats that we see).

Cowboys are willing to seek innovation over complacency, new solutions over inferior ones, protecting the environment over bureaucracy, and are willing to go against the status quo because the status quo never came up with something new. 

So, our friends at the ranch or the oilfield or the regulation office or anyone who drinks water…..are you a Cowboy?

Knowledge Gap? No, Synergy Gap

Do we have a “knowledge gap” about industrial by-product water? Well, some say we do. 

They say we don’t know how to clean the water properly. Or that we don’t know what by-product water is made of. They say we can’t make it work economically for the industrial side and can’t make it work effectively for the conservation side.

Are they right? We answer with a big, fat “no.” We don’t have a knowledge gap – we have a synergy gap.

It’s true that the oil companies don’t know how to grow vegetation on the land. And it’s true that the conservationists and ranchers don’t know how to efficiently get oil out of the ground to the refinery. The engineers don’t know about the economics of it all, and the CFOs have other things to figure out instead of soil or water science. 

Until now.

What has been needed all along is for someone – in this case Encore Green and BUWA – to understand the needs of each of the different people and groups involved and pool each of their bits of knowledge together, into a synergistic whole.

That’s the gap to close – and that’s what BUWA and Encore Green are all about. There is no knowledge gap IF we bring all the spheres of knowledge together. 

Guess what? There’s no IF. We’ve already done it. 

So, let’s stop talking about how you know this, but don’t know that. We’ve talked to all of you (or at least all of you in each area of expertise) and we have a solution to effectively take industrial by-product water, clean it up, and put it on the ground for conservation and agriculture.

Now, the only knowledge gap is if you decide you want to remain ‘un-knowledgeable’ of this fact.