CHEYENNE, Wyo., Nov. 01, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Agriculture company Encore Green, LLC just watered the land of Owen Goertz with cleaned-up water from a nearby oil well operated by a regional oil company.
"Today, history is being made in the West. From now on, our arid and semi-arid land has the opportunity for much needed water, thanks to the oil industry," says Darlene Nash, owner of Encore Green.
Encore Green, in association with the Beneficial-Use Water Alliance, has been working to fulfill the regulatory, economic, logistical, and relationship requirements to accomplish this.
"Many might not know, but the EPA allows land west of the 98th Meridian, which is the middle of the Dakotas down through Texas, to have oilfield and manufacturing by-product water applied to the land for agricultural and conservation beneficial-use. We think it's high time we started doing just that, in order to water our land here in the West," says Marvin Nash, General Manager of Encore Green, and inventor of the Conservation By-Design patent-pending methodology that makes this possible.
The heart of the Conservation By-Design methodology is data and scientific testing, with a water cleaning plan customized for the unique needs of each parcel of land. Near the source of the by-product water, whether an oilfield or manufacturing plant, the surrounding land's soil is tested to determine the ideal water makeup for the land to grow vegetation. Then, the water is tested and cleaned to match the optimal makeup to grow specific planned vegetation. After it's re-tested for good measure, the water is then applied to the land.
Typically, for each barrel of crude oil from a well, there's also three to five barrels of by-product water. Last year, over 71 billion gallons of oilfield by-product water came out of the ground across the US, only to be later injected under pressure back into the ground. Encore Green's mission is to transform that water into beneficial-use.
"We have a group of people – the oil industry – with billions of gallons of this by-product water. We have another group of people – the agriculturalists and conservationists – who are desperate for water. And, in the West, these two groups often share the same acreage. We just bring everyone together. It's a win-win-win."
Mr. Goertz has a vision that began with his father, to see his Wyoming land irrigated, "We are stewards of this land and we can do nothing less than to get more water on our thirsty ground."
Darlene Nash concludes, "We are ready to do for other landowners, oil companies, and industry what we've done here."
You can read more about these efforts at BeneficialUseWaterAlliance.com and sign up for monthly updates.
SOURCE Encore Green
Share this article