The Legislature has punched a gaping hole in state environmental protection laws to satisfy a Texas natural gas company.
HB 2352 would benefit a company that wants to build a stadium-sized underground cavern in Pinal County for natural gas storage.
The cavern would be created using water to dissolve an underground salt deposit, then pumping the supersalty water back underground elsewhere through injection wells. The bill would exempt such wells from the permitting process for aquifer protection.
Injection wells for contaminants ranging from radioactive waste to wastewater also would be exempted.
That’s a terrible idea. Once ruined, aquifers cannot be fixed. Keep the state environmental protections in place.