Senate Bill 1047 in the recent 88th session of the Texas legislature to continue the Texas Produced Water Consortium was signed into law May 13 by Gov. Greg Abbott. The consortium was created in 2021 to study the economics, treatment technologies, and environmental and public health considerations for beneficially using produced water outside the oil and gas industry. It’s a membership-based organization managed by the Office of Research and Innovation at Texas Tech University. Bill sponsors in 2023 were Republicans Sen. Charles Perry of Lubbock, Rep. Drew Darby of San Angelo and Rep. Carl Tepper of Lubbock and Democrats Sen. Cesar Blanco of El Paso and Sen. Morgan LaMantia of Brownsville.