America’s biggest oil field is under mounting strain—and the culprit isn’t just drilling, it’s wastewater, The Wall Street Journal writes.
In the Permian Basin, where roughly half of U.S. crude is produced, operators generate as many as six barrels of toxic, salty water for every barrel of oil and pump it back underground.
Now those disposal reservoirs are overpressurized, forcing wastewater to migrate through decaying wells and erupt at the surface in geyser-like blowouts that cost millions to fix. In one West Texas community, repeated leaks required more than $2.5 million in emergency repairs, and satellite data shows the ground is still heaving years later.
Texas regulators, caught between protecting a cornerstone industry and preventing environmental fallout, are racing to cap injection volumes and plug orphan wells, even as landowners fear contamination of groundwater and rising cleanup bills.
With pressure continuing to build beneath the basin, producers face higher costs, tougher drilling conditions and a growing question: Can the Permian’s red-hot production boom survive its own wastewater problem?
