LTR - Ep 53 - "Who is The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) and What is Rule 91?"

In this 53rd episode, I discuss "Who is The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) and What is Rule 91?"

The Railroad Commission of Texas is The State of Texas' Regulatory Body governing The Oil & Gas Industry.

One of the main governing regulations it uses is called "Rule 91."

Rule 91 sets the notification, clean up and reporting requirements.  Rule 91 provides tiered requirements based on the spill volume and environmental sensitivity.  This means the volume of the spill based on barrels and whether or not the spill is in a sensitive area like a wetland or near water.  The volume of barrels is 5 or less, between 5 and 25 or more than 25.  Remember, 1 barrel is equal to 42 gallons.  The higher the volume, the more notification and more strict clean up and reporting requirements.  And if a sensitive area is involved or has the potential to be involved, the higher requirements are automatically triggered and the specific requirements will be determined by The RRC on a case by case basis.

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Transcript

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Hey there, let's talk remediation. This is your host, Charles Fader, and this is our 53rd episode of Let's Talk Remediation. Our 53rd episode is brought to us by our ongoing sponsor, Hambi Environmental. So, Hambi Environmental, thank you for your continuing support of this podcast, Let's Talk Remediation, where we're trying to have a positive impact on the environmental remediation industry. Hambi Environmental is a manufacturer of field test kits for soil, solid surface, and water analysis, for total petroleum hydrocarbons, for PFAS, and for chlorides, and providing accurate results within 10% of a lab result, within efficient results, four and six minutes for TPH analysis, 10 minutes for uh PFAS analysis, and uh three to five minutes, depending on if it's a soil or water sample for uh chloride analysis. Um the TPH analysis are $35 a test for soil and solid surface, $45 a test for water, $250 a test for PFAS, and $20 a test for chlorides. Again, thank you, Hambi Environmental, for your ongoing support of this podcast. Let's talk remediation, where we're trying to have a positive impact on the environmental remediation industry. And with that, let's get started with our 53rd episode. Our 53rd episode is what is the RRC or what is the uh Railroad Commission of Texas, and what is Rule 91 and what does it mean? So the RRC or Railroad Umission, also uh referred to as the Railroad Commission of Texas, is the state agency that regulates the Texas energy industry. It includes oil and gas, natural gas utilities, uh pipeline uh safety, uh, surface coal and uranium mining, and alternative fuels. Uh however, despite its name, the Railroad Commission of Texas or the RRC, uh, it doesn't regulate railroads. It used to, but those duties were transferred to the Texas uh Department of Transportation um uh over time and completely transitioned away uh in 2005. So what does the railroad commission do? The core responsibilities for the railroad commission uh relate to oil and gas, and so they oversee the exploration, the production, and the transportation of oil and gas and natural gas. Uh so the railroad commission issues drilling permits, they ensure environmental protection, uh, and they prevent uh resource waste. So pipeline safety, uh they enforce the safety regulations for natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines. Again, as it relates to mining, they regulate uh surface coal and uranium mining to ensure proper land reclamation after the mining uh operations are complete. And for the alternative fuels, they provide uh research and education and safety regulations regarding liquefied petroleum gas or LPG uh and compressed natural gas uh CNG. So uh the structure of the Railroad Commission, uh the agency structure, it's got it governs. So the the commission is led by three commissioners who are elected statewide and they have staggering six-year terms. That way, uh, as they become elected, they're not all three trying to be elected uh at one time, so they stagger by about every two years. Um and the history of the agency. So the railroad commission was established in 1891, and it's the oldest state, uh, the oldest regulatory agency in in Texas. It was originally created to regulate the railroad uh industry, but as its uh focus shifted to petroleum oversight in the 20th century, all railroad uh oversight functions were fully transitioned away uh by 2005. So now that we have an understanding for who the regulatory agency uh for Texas uh is, the Railroad Commission of Texas, the RRC, and what they regulate and what their responsibilities and duties are and how the agency is structured, let's talk about one of the governing um rules uh that they enforce. So specifically, we want to talk about RRC Rule 91 or the Railroad Commission's Rule 91. And so Rule 91 provides uh the cleanup requirements for hydrocarbon condensate spills and crude oil spills. Uh in so the rule 91 is the Railroad Commission of Texas's regulation governing uh the notification requirements, the cleanup requirements, the reporting requirements for soil contaminated by crude oil or hydrocarbon condensate spills. It establishes a tiered cleanup guidance based on spill volume and environmental uh sensitivity. So along those lines, some of the key things uh in in that relate to Rule 91 are the reporting and delineation requirements, right? So if you have a spill that is less than five barrels, now remember uh barrels are how oil and gas is um is measured, uh and a barrel is 42 gallons. So you know, five barrels you multiply, you know, uh 40 times five is 200, and five times two is ten, so 210 gallons of crude oil uh in five barrels. So if you have a spill that has less than or equal to five barrels, so five barrels or less, you do not need to report it to the railroad commission, but it must still be remediated to the commission standards, and we're gonna get to those standards here in a second. However, if you have a spill of five to twenty five barrels, then you are required to um uh formally delineate, uh which means define the boundaries of the contamination that was spilt, and you must report to the railroad commission on form H8 and disposal of the contaminated uh soil as well. And then if you have this is the tiered uh uh the tiered structuring that we were talking about, uh the tiered cleanup guidelines. Then, if you have a spill that's over 25 barrels, then you're uh required an initial report and a final report upon cleanup completion, along with sample analysis, verifying cleanup levels are met. Now, that is if you had a spill of five barrels or less, or five to twenty frels, or over twenty five barrels. Now, one of the other things is if it includes if the spill includes a sensitive area. If there's a sensitive area involved, uh then spills in sensitive areas uh that uh or involving hydro uh hydrocarbon condensate, uh then they must be evaluated on a strict case-by-case basis by the uh regulatory uh uh the railroad commission um representatives. So you would have to, you know, contact them, notify them, and ask them, you know, about what is what is required. All right. So other than the reporting and the you know uh delineation of of the boundaries of the spill, there are cleanup standards, okay? So let's talk about non-sensitive areas for the cleanup standards. The first thing is is all free oil, all free oil must be removed immediately. So that means it must be picked up, absorbed up, sponged, um, or it must be remediated immediately. So free oil that means the stuff on the surface sitting there. Soil that is contaminated now, soil that needs to be excavated during the cleanup must not exceed 5% by weight TPH. Okay. 5%, 5% of 1 million is 50,000. So your contaminated soil has to be below 50,000 parts per million. Okay, and then the final cleanup goal is to make sure that the cleanup gets below the concentration of 1% uh by weight TPH, TPH being total petroleum hydrocarbons, and that must be achieved as soon as technically feasible and no more than one year after the spill. And again, one percent by weight TPH means one percent of one million, which is 10,000 parts per million TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons. Now then that is the tiered level. Again, we were talking about five barrels or less, or five to twenty-five or over twenty five. And then, of course, if it's in a sensitive area, uh, you have to get the railroad commission involved via notification and ask them uh for their input on uh what needs to be done. Now, so again, in in review a little bit, the railroad commission's rule statewide rule 91 establishes the cleanup requirements and procedures for soil contaminated by crude oil or hydrocarbon condensates. Okay, and the key cleanup and reporting standards are the reporting thresholds, which again is spills of five barrels or less do not require formal reporting unless they enter water. Now, uh, but they still must be remediated. Now, spills into water or spills of condensate or crude oil into sensitive areas require immediate notification to the railroad commission and again asking for their input on how to proceed forward. And again, the soil cleanup target, the final target is that 1% by weight TPH, total petroleum hydrocarbons must be achieved as soon as technically feasible and within one year of the incident at most. Contaminated soil that is going to be like excavated, soil exceeding 5% TPH must be immediately removed, properly disposed of, or temporarily stored in a way that prevents stormwater contamination. So uh, if if your contaminated soil is 5% or more, which is 50,000 parts per million or more, then you you must take these additional steps. And also if it's in sensitive areas, the cleanup requirements for condensate and spills in environmentally sensitive areas like near groundwater, surface water, wildlife registries, marshes, or evaluated by the railroad commission on a state-by-state uh uh uh case-by-case basis. So remember, rule 91 provides the cleanup requirements for hydrocarbon condensate spills and crude oil spills in the in uh and there's guidelines that are tiered based on the amount of volume that is spilt as to what is required. So that's kind of what I just wanted to go over in today's 53rd episode is who is the railroad commission or RRC? It's the that stands for the Railroad Commission of Texas, and what is the main governing uh rule that it you know that is used in their main goal of governing things with um the oil and gas industry, and Rule 91 is one of the majors. It is it tells basically in short, immediately uh spills have to be addressed and remediated, and then depending on the amount of the spill, um there's a tiered structure that you know obviously the more that is spilt the the more the uh notification has to be done and proceeded. And in a an upcoming episode, we're gonna go more into um railroad commission's uh recommendations for soil sampling when these spills have taken place. So I'll put that in the next step. So there's like a field guide for that. So that's really what I wanted to cover today about the Rule 91 and who the Railroad Commission is. Um so with that, uh, I thank you for tuning in. If you have a topic you'd like for us to address on a future podcast or a specific question you'd like for us to address, don't hesitate reaching out via my email. That's C Fader, that's C F S N Frank A-T-O-R at Let's Talkremediation.com, and we will get that covered. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you, Hambi Environmental, for your ongoing support of this podcast. And with that, I'm your host, Charles Fader, and I'm out.

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