History
The Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) developed a multi-stakeholder working group to identify opportunities and challenges associated with utilizing produced water as a resource and to provide suggestions that policy makers, researchers, regulators and others can use to address them.
Led by its member states, the GWPC brought together a collaboration of scientists, regulatory officials, members of academia, the oil and gas industry, and environmental groups to explore roles produced water might play in developing greater water certainty. The workgroup released a “Produced Water Report” on June 24, 2019, that consists of three focused modules:
- Module 1: Current Legal, Regulatory & Operational Frameworks
- Module 2: Produced Water Reuse in Unconventional Oil & Gas Operations
- Module 3: Produced Water Reuse & Research Needs Outside Oil & Gas Operations
Freshwater stress is driven by rising populations, regional droughts, declining groundwater levels and several other factors. When surface water is scarce, communities and industries typically turn to groundwater to meet their freshwater needs. Produced water may become a resource that could reduce the use of freshwater for some of these needs in specific locations.
Shellie Chard
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality
Produced Water Task Force Co-Chair
John Baza
Utah Department of Natural Resources
Produced Water Task Force Co-Chair
Regulations, Current Practices & Needs
- Produced Water Research – Presentation
VIEW SLIDES (7.13.20) - Report Modules
The Produced Water Report is comprised of three modules that examine produced water from different approaches. The electronic PDF of the report is available for download here, as well as the report broken into different pieces. DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT (PDF)
Seminar on a National Produced Water Reuse Vision and Planning
July 13, 2020
The Ground Water Protection Council Produced Water Task Force partnered with the New Mexico Produced Water Research Consortium to present a half day virtual workshop experience focusing on a national vision and plan for produced water reuse in the U.S.
The workshop, held July 2020, was geared toward industry, regulatory and academic communities with a goal to bring together work efforts and research to determine next steps.