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agreements about the issues at hand. The social sciences have a lot to contribute here. Secondly, I would suggest that we start to develop state -by- state implementation plans. Senate Bill 1860 calls for some research roadmaps, but that's different than having implementa- tion road maps. To me, it's unconscionable that every project has to start from scratch and not learn the lessons from those that preceded it. These kinds of implementation road maps can be used to educate other projects in other, smaller, communi- ties that don't necessarily have the resources to start the project from scratch. Thirdly, I think we need a set of demonstration projects that are visible and accessible. I would suggest that the DOE and De- partment of Interior (DOI) get together to both develop, fund, and acquire different technologies to get a series of demonstra- tion projects that we can bring both the water industry and the petroleum industry to view. Lastly, we need some leadership. Right now, we in the West turn to the DOI, for the most part, for water leadership. Petro- leum industry turns to the DOE. Water agencies aren't used to going to the DOE, and I'm sure the petroleum and oil industry is not accustomed to going to the BOR. We need a point of contact. The federal agencies ought to try to get together to, at least, provide the initial reissuing. The only other alternative is for the two industries to get together — a process that could be very slow to develop from where we are now. The Industry Grows a lot of Lemons Produced waters are a cost to be minimized! Frank Yates, Yates Petroleum Company Artesia, New Mexico Yates Petroleum Corporation has been looking for treat- ment alternatives for several years in an effort to find economically competitive alternatives to down hole disposal. Several factors must be taken into account in order to effec- tively pursue these potential options, including:. Economics; available technologies; new technologies; legal, regulatory and environmental concerns; and internal company and industry politics have had an influence on progress made in this arena. Economics Down hole disposal has been the long -time acceptable meth- od of dealing with waste water associated with oil and natural gas production. Reinjection of produced water is expensive and can represent 50 percent of the direct operating costs of many oil and gas wells. There are three components to reinjection costs that must be quantified: capital expenditures, direct operating costs, and gathering costs. -initial capital expenditures are those associated with drilling a disposal well, or more commonly, converting an existing dry hole to a disposal well, which can be considerably less expensive. Costs vary considerably across the country. In Southeast New Mexico, a 7,000 -foot Delaware dry hole can be converted to a disposal well for about $600,000. It may be possible to inject as much as 6,000 bbls of water per day (1 bbl = 42 gal) into a well like this. This scenario calculates to $100 / bbl / day of capacity, a ratio used for comparative economics. Conversely, in Wyoming, the subsurface strata available for injection are very low in porosity and permeability. It can cost $4M to drill a disposal well that will only take 4,000 bbls / day. Now you're up to $1,000 bbl / day of capacity. -Direct operating costs for a disposal well include costs for electricity for pump operations, filters, and chemical treat- ments for well bore protection. These costs can add up to between $0.03 and $0.07 / bbl for some areas, more in others. -The third component of cost is gathering, or getting the produced water from the production facility to the disposal facility. Gathering is accomplished either by pipeline or by trucking, depending on the daily volumes of water to be transported. These costs can range from a few cents per barrel — when moving larger volumes through pipelines — to several dollars per barrel to truck smaller volumes of water that do not economically warrant laying gathering lines.