August 16th, 2012
By German Lopez |
Politics/Issues |
Posted In: News, Environment, Oil
Environmental Groups Ask for More Fracking Rules
NRDC and others say wastewater injection well rules aren’t tough enough
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and 10 other individuals and organizations filed a letter today asking the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to strengthen its rules for wastewater injection wells, which are used to dispose of wastewater produced during fracking.
NRDC says the tougher regulations could prevent more incidents like the earthquakes experienced in Youngstown, Ohio around New Year’s Eve. The earthquakes were linked to wastewater injection wells in the Youngstown area.
Tougher regulations could also prevent water contamination,
according to the letter. Recent investigations have found that
wastewater disposed in injection wells might be seeping through the ground
and leaking into the surface or contaminating nearby water sources. But Heidi Hetzel-Evans, spokesperson for ODNR, says regulators have not recorded any groundwater contamination from Class II injection wells in Ohio since ODNR took over the program in 1983.
The structure of injection wells is also a concern. In the letter, the organization calls for tougher injection well standards that ensure the wells can withstand corrosive effects from fluids deposited in injection wells and any hydraulic pressure experienced during the dumping and storing process. With these standards, it would be much more difficult for wastewater to leak through the wells.
The letter includes additional recommendations that ask for clearer minimum standards, more water tests, checkups on wells, more protections for landowners near injection wells, and more. The full recommendations can be read in the letter here.
The call for more regulation is largely in response to new rules that Gov. John
Kasich signed in with an executive order on July 12. Hetzel-Evans defended the current rules by pointing out they are flexible yet often stronger than minimum requirements from the Environmental
Protection Agency.
Hetzel-Evans has not been able to see the full suggestions in the letter yet, but she says one of the strengths of the current rules is that they don’t burden operators with unnecessary tests. She cited the example of some wells being way too shallow for earthquake activity to be an issue. Seismic testings in those wells would serve no purpose, she says.
Cincinnati City Council recently banned wastewater
injection wells within city limits. But ODNR has received no permit
requests for wastewater injection wells in southwestern Ohio.
Hetzel-Evans says southwestern Ohio’s geology makes any shale drilling
and wastewater injection wells unfeasible.
No amount of regulation will ever make this flawed technology safe... Propublica reported that 1 in 3 injection wells in Texas have integrity violations. This is because cement always cracks over time. That's why New Jersey and Cincinnati banned them. My only guess as to why these groups are pushing for more regulation is that they think this is the best they can get from Kasich. http://www.propublica.org/article/injection-wells-the-poison-beneath-us