New Federal regulations that go into effect 3 months from now, have the Oil & Gas Industry fuming in more ways than they are used to, while environmentalists are finally seeing the industry having to meet expected safe drilling practices that will protect the land and the drinking water.
After three years of debate, the U.S. Interior Department said Friday that drillers on federal land must reveal many of the the chemicals they use, meet construction standards for wells and safely dispose of contaminated water.
While the new regulations would only affect federal land, it will allow those states concerned about fracking on private lands to impose similar protections, using the federal regulations as an acceptable blueprint.
Currently, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has more than 100,000 wells on federal lands and accounts for about 11 percent of U.S. gas output and 5 percent of oil production. About 90 percent of them use fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, according to a Bloomberg Business report.
Environmental groups praised the final rule because it includes pressure testing each well before production begins, and would require millions of gallons of waste water be stored in tanks, rather than open pits. It has long been suspected that cracks in the lining of wells has allowed contaminants into water aquifers they pass through, while pit leaks have been documented from Wyoming to Pennsylvania.
Pressure testing done at the completion of drilling, but before the fracking procedure is done would reveal a leak. If a leak is found, the well would likely be abandoned.
Some environmental groups feel the regulations still fall short, both in the lack of providing a complete list of all chemicals used by frackers and in the lack of the same federal regulations being applied to frackers on private lands.
The BLM is the largest landowner in the U.S., overseeing about 700 million acres of mineral rights underground. Farmers or ranchers own the surface rights on large tracts of federal land.
The Oil & Gas Industry is expected to file a lawsuit challenging the new regulations, calling them unnecessary and cost prohibitive to the industry.
Fracking is possibly the most expensive way to obtain oil and gas, trapped in shale deposits throughout the U.S.
Profit margins are low using the fracking method and with the fall of oil prices, fracking wells are being shut down in ever increasing numbers.
Hopefully, they all shut down if the industry refuses to abide by the new regulations. It is also hoped that Governor Wolf imposes the same regulations on frackers operating within Pennsylvania.
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
