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produced water

Circle 6 Baptist Camp, bottom, and produced water ponds, constructed by Martin Water, top, in Lenorah on Feb. 24, 2024. The Railroad Commission approved the construction of the ponds, used to treat and recycle produced water from fracking, next to the Circle 6 Baptist Camp in the Permian Basin. Credit: Julian Mancha for The Texas Tribune/Inside Climate News

Railroad Commission Approves Toxic Waste Ponds Next to Baptist Camp

By Martha Pskowski
A natural gas well site outside of Hope, in eastern New Mexico. Credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

New Mexico Looks to Address Increasing Aridity With Brackish and Produced Water. Experts Are ‘Skeptical’

By Wyatt Myskow
Storage tanks for wastewater and crude oil in Midland, Texas. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Oil or Water? Midland Says Disposal Wells Could Threaten Water Supply

By Martha Pskowski
Oil and gas lawyer Sarah Stogner visits Lake Boehmer in Pecos County where abandoned wells have brought produced water to the surface for decades. The Railroad Commission considers these water wells and therefore not under their jurisdiction. Credit: Martha Pskowski/Inside Climate News

Oil and Gas Companies Spill Millions of Gallons of Wastewater in Texas

By Martha Pskowski, Peter Aldhous
A waste water tank truck passes on the main street of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Credit: Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images.

Should Toxic Wastewater From Gas Drilling Be Spread on Pennsylvania Roads as a Dust and Snow Suppressant?

By Jake Bolster
An injection well in Western Pennsylvania. Credit: FracTracker.org

Answers About Old Gas Sites Repurposed as Injection Wells for Fracking’s Toxic Wastewater May Never Be Fully Unearthed

By Jake Bolster
A truck filled with gas departs a newly completed gas well. The flare is burning because the infrastructure to transport the gas via pipelines was not yet complete. Credit: Scott Goldsmith

A Rural Pennsylvania Community Goes to Commonwealth Court, Trying to Stop a New Disposal Well for Toxic Fracking Wastewater

By Jake Bolster
A natural gas compressor station sits on a hillside in Penn Township, Pennsylvania. Credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images.

New Pennsylvania Legislation Aims to Classify ‘Produced Water’ From Fracking as Hazardous Waste

By Jake Bolster
Limestone canyons line the lower Pecos River near its confluence with the Rio Grande. The Pecos flows from New Mexico into the Permian Basin in Texas before eventually flowing into the Amistad Reservoir at the Rio Grande. The river has been discussed as a potential target for produced water discharges. Credit: Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images.

Standards Still Murky for Disposing Oilfield Wastewater in Texas Rivers

By Martha Pskowski
File photo: A horizontal gas drilling rig in the Marcellus Shale outside Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Massive quantities of water, sand and chemicals, many exempt from regulation under the "Halliburton amendment," are pumped into the wells at high pressure as part of the fracking process. Credit: MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty Images.

‘Halliburton Loophole’ Allows Fracking Companies to Avoid Chemical Regulation

By Jon Hurdle
Two 18-wheel tractor trailers carry fresh water to natural gas wells being fracked in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale. After injection into the wells at high pressure, wastewater returns to the surface and is either recycled and used to frack other wells, stored above ground, or injected in storage wells below ground. The wastewater typically contains numerous toxic chemicals used in the fracking process as well as natural contaminants, such as arsenic, radium and salts. Credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images.

A Pennsylvania Community Wins a Reprieve on Toxic Fracking Wastewater

By Jon Hurdle

What Is Produced Water?

By Liza Gross, Dylan Baddour
Two 18-wheel tractor trailers carry fresh water to natural gas wells being drilled by hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale Sept. 10, 2012 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Ohio Environmentalists, Oil Companies Battle State Over Dumping of Fracking Wastewater

By Jon Hurdle

Awash in Toxic Wastewater From Fracking for Natural Gas, Pennsylvania Faces a Disposal Reckoning

By Stacey Burling
A stock pond south of Dallas dries up due to drought conditions. Across Texas, drought is taxing reservoirs and rivers and groundwater aquifers are being pumped faster than they can recharge. Currently, more than half the state is in drought. Credit: Paul Buck/AFP via Getty Images.

Texas Eyes Marine Desalination, Oilfield Water Reuse to Sustain Rapid Growth

By Martha Pskowski
David Shifflett, a farmer in Reeves County, parses records of his protests to the Texas Railroad Commission against permits for nearby wastewater injection wells.

Landowners Fear Injection of Fracking Waste Threatens Aquifers in West Texas

By Dylan Baddour, Inside Climate News, with photos by Pu Ying Huang, Texas Tribune  
Pump jacks at the Belridge Oil Field and hydraulic fracking site in Kern County, California. Credit: Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Fracking Wastewater Causes Lasting Harm to Key Freshwater Species

By Liza Gross
A fracking site is situated on the outskirts of town in the Permian Basin oil field on Jan. 21, 2016 in the oil town of Midland, Texas. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Fracking Waste Gets a Second Look to Ease Looming West Texas Water Shortage

By Dylan Baddour

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