US steps up scrutiny over oil and gas wastewater

OREANDA-NEWS. June 28, 2016.  US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking steps to prevent oil and gas producers from disposing wastewater into public sewage facilities it says are ill-equipped to handle discharges associated with drilling.

EPA tomorrow will formally publish a rule blocking shale oil and gas producers from sending their wastewater to municipal water treatment plants. The salts, metals, radioactive elements and other chemicals produced by these unconventional oil and gas producers can escape the treatment process and be released directly into streams and rivers, lowering water quality and harming aquatic life, EPA has found.

EPA at the same time is considering whether conventional oil and gas producers should have to follow similar disposal rules. The agency today for the first time requested public comment on how frequently conventional producers send their wastewater to municipal water treatment plants. It also wants to know how often these producers use their wastewater for watering livestock and other agricultural uses.

It is unclear how often oil and gas producers use municipal wastewater treatment plants for their operations, which can produce large quantities of wastewater during drilling and hydraulic fracturing activities. EPA has found some unconventional producers sent their wastes to public treatment plants in the past, though it said industry has since phased out this practice.

The oil and gas industry traditionally injects its wastewater deep underground where it is unlikely to reach drinking water or return the surface. But the rapid boom in shale drilling pushed oil and gas producers into areas without underground injection wells or other infrastructure to handle the wastes, prompting some producers to send it directly into public wastewater treatment plants.

EPA's new regulations for unconventional oil and gas producers will take effect on 27 August.