Cancerous Oil-Field Wastewater Is Spreading Through Oklahoma Water Supply

I remember late aughts when I lived near Oklahoma seeing Tommy Lee Jones (the actor) on billboards, promising that fracking the Barnett Shale would never lead to water quality issues. What did I know?

Drill, baby, drill!

If I click through to the original article https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/28/texas-fracking-water... , it doesn't seem to justify your summary of "giving protections to oil companies leaving poison in the water". What it describes seems to be a fairly cautious attempt to allow and maybe encourage the "produced" brine water to be treated and used:

"companies that sell the water can’t be held responsible for the consequences if someone else uses the water. Treatment and transportation companies and landowners also qualify for protection, including in cases of personal injury, death, or property damage.

Companies and landowners can only be sued when they are grossly negligent, commit intentional, wrongful acts of omission, break state or federal laws, or fail to satisfy standards set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which sets and enforces the state’s environmental rules.

The bill directs the environmental quality commission to write rules around produced water research and reuse."

Basically it seems that responsibility for the water follows ownership of it. Environmental regulations are still in place.