November 2014, Vol. 69, No. 11
Newsline
GAO Says EPA Needs More Fracking Oversight
Federal environment officials have failed to adequately oversee hundreds of thousands of wells used to inject toxic oil and gas drilling waste deep underground, according to a new congressional report.
The report, released July 28 by the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO), is critical of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) inconsistent handling of safety inspections, poor record keeping, and failure to adjust its guidelines to adapt to new risks brought by the recent boom in domestic drilling, including the understanding that injection wells are causing earthquakes.
According to GAO, every day in the U.S. at least 2 billion gallons of fluids are injected into more than 172,000 wells to enhance oil and gas production, or to dispose of fluids brought to the surface during the extraction of oil and gas resources. These wells are subject to regulation to protect drinking water sources under EPA’s UIC class II program and approved state class II programs. Because much of the population relies on underground sources for drinking water, these wells have raised concerns about the safety of the nation’s drinking water.
The GAO report recommends, among other things, that the EPA “review emerging risks related to class II program safeguards and ensure that it can effectively oversee and efficiently enforce class II programs.”
EPA is not consistently enforcing and overseeing class II wells, said GAO. The class II waste wells in question are not subject to the same rigorous geologic study, safety reviews and regular monitoring that the EPA requires of other toxic waste injection wells from other industries, making it difficult for the EPA to enforce protections of underground drinking water supplies.
However, the GAO said the EPA has a role in fracking oversight that it is neglecting.
Oversight of injection wells is currently delegated by the EPA to a number of state agencies. Part of the problem, the GAO found, is that the EPA has not consistently inspected those state programs to ensure that state regulators comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act and EPA guidelines. The EPA also has failed to incorporate requirements it has placed on some of its state programs into federal regulations, making it difficult for the agency to take legal action against violators.
Comments