Environmentalists Say Bill Being Considered by Texas Senate Would Let Companies Dump Fracking Waste

[TexasTowelie]

Environmental groups are warning that a bill passed by the Texas House and now awaiting discussion in the Texas Senate would give fracking companies a license to pollute the state's waterways.

House Bill 2771, which received an affirmative vote yesterday afternoon, would allow the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to grant permits to let oil and gas companies discharge water used at fracking sites into rivers and streams. The Senate is expected to take up companion legislation, Senate Bill 1585, early next week.

The bill requires energy companies to treat the water before it can be discharged, but environmental groups caution that the bill is vague about what that means. What's more, Texas law allows companies to keep the ingredients of their fracking fluids secret, making testing and follow-up tricky to say the least.

"We have no ability to confirm what chemicals are in the water," said Adrian Shelley, director of watchdog group Public Citizen's Texas office. "Without that, there's no assurance you're correctly catching everything when you test for it."

Read more: https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2019/04/18/environmentalists-say-bill-being-considered-by-texas-senate-would-let-companies-dump-fracking-waste-into-waterways

[democratisphere]

1. WTF is wrong with this bass ackwards state?

How do people like this get voted into office? The fracking lobbyists must be stuffing money into the legislator's pockets as fast as they can. What a bunch of corrupt sellouts.

[Ilsa]

3. If local press reports on it in red areas,

they get truckloads of LTEs claiming they are liberal lies and cancelled subscriptions. Not a single one will call their legislator to verify that this is a real possibility. Then they shift to claiming the discharge is perfectly safe, even when the companies hide the chemical makeup of the fluid.

[democratisphere]

4. Lies and misinformation is the new normal, specially for Red States.

[Ilsa]

2. Some of that waste needs to be poured into their

Swimming pools and on their lawns. Let them live with it.

The whole state will literally stink and be unliveable.