RRC Awards
Ground Water Protection Council Award
The national Ground Water Protection Council presented its 2022 Excellence in UIC Award to the RRC for utilizing machine learning to help mitigate seismicity.
RRC’s Underground Injection Control Department began using a machine learning program to weigh hundreds of data points, including underground water resources, nearby disposal wells, the number, severity and proximity of earthquakes. The program produces a recommendation for permitting via its decision tree, which a technical analyst reviews as part of the analyst’s final judgment. This tool has significantly improved permitting consistency and efficiency.
Bruno Hanson/Midland College Environmental Excellence Award
The RRC received the Bruno Hanson/Midland College Environmental Excellence Award in 2022 for its collaborative efforts with the University of Texas at Austin’s Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) in the TexNet Seismic Monitoring Program.
The RRC has helped BEG expand TexNet, which has been a critical tool used by the RRC to monitor seismic activity near injection/disposal wells throughout the state. It has been instrumental in the creation of RRC’s Seismic Response Areas to work towards reducing the frequency and intensity of earthquakes resulting from produced water injection in West Texas.
IOGCC Award
The Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission has presented the RRC its Chair’s Environmental Partnership Award for helping the National Park Service (NPS) on two projects.
In 2021, NPS utilized the RRC’s expertise to plug 11 orphaned wells in the Padre Island National Seashore, a very popular tourist destination along the Texas coast. The agency’s work not only involved plugging the wells, but also maintaining the integrity of the dunes at the park while doing so.
In 2023, the RRC removed surface casings on four wells that had been plugged by operators in the Neches River in the Big Thicket National Preserve 40 years prior. The underwater surface casings had become exposed over time and posed a risk to boaters in the area. The RRC organized contractors and divers to remove river debris and cut the steel casings at the riverbed to get them removed safely.
IMCC Award
The Interstate Mining Compact Commission presented the RRC with its National Mine Safety and Health Training Award in the State Category for Coal Surface Mining.
The 2022 award recognized the excellence of the Surface Mining and Reclamation Division’s (SMRD) video training that highlights SMRD’s use of drone technology in the field, including pre- and post-flight procedures, drone inspection efficiency, and how drones maintain safe distance between multi-ton mining equipment and inspectors.
Drones have helped SMRD inspectors do much more efficient work by getting information in mere minutes versus the hours of work it used to take an inspector on the ground.
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Award
The U.S Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement presented the RRC with its 2022 national Small Project Award for work on a century-old abandoned East Texas mine
The RRC’s Abandoned Mine Land Program filled an abandoned lignite mine, dating back to the 19th century, close to the historic courthouse in Center, Texas. The project included working under the properties of two homes at the location to fix problems such as a large sinkhole.
Kilgore News Herald Award
The RRC’s Kilgore District Office was chosen by newspaper readers of the Kilgore News Herald as Best Oilfield Company for Community Support in 2021.
Kilgore has a long energy producing history and the district office has always been pivotal in serving the area. After the discovery of the East Texas Oil Field in October 1930, Kilgore became an important production, processing, service and supply hub. Part of the city’s downtown was once nicknamed the “World’s Richest Acre” due to the greatest concentration of oil derricks in the world at that time.
Oil and gas staff in the district office serve residents and operators in more than 40 counties.
