Ariz. House Backs Bill Aiding Gas Storage Project

PAUL DAVENPORT

PHOENIX (AP) — A bill advancing in the Arizona Legislature would help a Texas company's proposal to store natural gas in a stadium-sized underground cavern by loosening state regulatory protections for groundwater.

The House on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to the bill amid lengthy debate over whether the project planned in Pinal County in south-central Arizona by a Houston-based natural gas storage company, MultiFuels LP, could pose a risk to the environment.

The bill would exempt so-called injection wells from a state permitting process for aquifer protection. The project would use injection wells to pump extremely salty water back into the ground after the brine is removed from an underground cavern for gas storage created when a salt formation is dissolved. ...