MIDLAND, Texas — The City of Midland has reached a settlement with Pilot Gathering Delaware LLC over the company’s plans to drill saltwater disposal wells on land vital to providing water to the Tall City.
According to Midland Mayor Lori Blong, the city became aware of Pilot's intention to drill saltwater disposal wells on the city's property on the T-Bar Groundwater Ranch in Winkler County early 2023. The city felt that those wells were a little too close for comfort to groundwater that provides vital water to Midlanders.
“Once we were notified of that we went to the railroad commission and immediately requested standing to be able to be in the room and have an understanding of what the process was going to be and protest the large number of permits that had been issued to them,” Mayor Blong said.
Mayor Blong says Pilot Gathering had already finished four wells near the city's water fairway by the time everything was stopped. She says those wells don’t pose a risk to the water fairway, and any additional wells that Pilot makes will have to follow specific rules.
“So effectively this settlement reduced the number of wells that can be in that location to the four they had already drilled before our consent," Mayor Blong said. "The four that they had drilled previously will stay there, but any additional wells be moved outside of our fairway where our water can be developed. So, the location for the eight additional wells that they’re now going to get will be outside of our water production.”
But as part of the settlement, any other wells that Pilot Gathering plans on digging will be relegated to a part of the property not near the water fairway and monitoring systems. Monitoring water wells will be installed for testing purposes.
"The main benefit that I see from this settlement is that we have the opportunity to have monitoring systems and monitoring water wells that we would have not been able to get without the settlement agreement," Mayor Blong said. "And so, I believe have made future water development and municipal water for the city of midland safer because we have more monitoring for our entire well development than we have before."
NewsWest 9 reached out to Pilot Gathering for comment on the settlement, but haven't heard anything back at this time.