Paper: Salt Water Disposal

With the adoption of Statewide Rule 8, amended by Order No. 20-56, 841, by the Texas Railroad Commission, salt water disposal in the State of Texas will become essentially 100% subsurfaced by 1969. Although such a method is not without hazard in regard to pollution, when such a system is properly designed, installed, and operated, it provides greatest possible assurance of eliminating pollution of surface and subsurface domestic water supplies. Disposal of oil field brines into subsurface formations is not new to the industry, having been in use for many years; and the practices of the petroleum industry are being widely adopted by other industries in the disposal of their plant wastes. The details of such disposal practices have been covered elsewhere. This paper will, therefore, deal primarily with newer developments in materials of construction, equipment and control of water quality, corrosion and sale to achieve injection at minimum costs. Certain problems needing improvement in technology are discussed.