US Environmental organisations file legal notice with the EPA over dumping of

Eight environmental organizations announced today they intend to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force it to set new and tighter standards for disposal of oil and gas drilling and fracking waste that they say threatens public health and the environment. Although the West Virginia has taken some steps to improve regulation, the state’s approach of permitting horizontal drilling without carefully considering whether current methods of waste disposal are appropriate or adequate has created a problem for which there are no good solutions.

And, with narrowing disposal options, the oil industry is pursuing drilling and fracturing techniques that produce less liquid waste – including so called “dry fracs” that rely on liquefied petroleum gas gel instead of water. The groups also argue that the EPA hasn’t reviewed its guidelines for state plans to manage oil and gas wastes since 1981.

In addition to the EIP, NRDC and Earthworks, groups filing the notice include Responsible Drilling Alliance, San Juan Citizens Alliance, West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization, and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

According to the rules, the oil and gas industry is one of the largest emitters of methane. The groups say the EPA must comply with its long-overdue obligations to update waste disposal rules that should have been revised more than a quarter century ago.

About three-quarters of the waste containing TENORM consists of sludge from fracking waste water after treatment by 24 non-municipal plants that operate under a DEP permit.

Shader, speaking before Wednesday’s statement by the environmental groups, said the department regulates the amount of TENORM that each landfill can accept each month, and that none of the 21 landfills exceeded their allocation in the first half of this year.

“We’re asking that EPA finally do what it found to be necessary back in 1988: update the regulations for oil and gas wastes”, Environmental Integrity Project attorney Adam Kron said.

Kron said the EPA determined in 1988 that its regulations under the law needed to be reviewed but that has not happened despite the proliferation of waste from the fracking boom.

However, the current RCRA rules that govern oil and gas wastes are too weak because they are the same rules that apply to all “non-hazardous” wastes, including household trash. “The oil and gas industry has grown rapidly since then, and yet EPA has repeatedly shirked its duties for almost three decades”.

DALLAS (AP) – Critics have notified the Environmental Protection Agency of their intent to sue if regulators do not update their rules on fracking waste in 60 days.

The advocates cited incidents in five states including Pennsylvania where a pond holding 6 million gallons of fracking waste water leaked pollutants including strontium and arsenic into groundwater and a nearby stream in Tioga County in 2012.

According to the groups, led by the Environmental Integrity Project, the EPA had not taken action for years in regulating waste from the oil and gas industry.

Steve Everley, senior adviser for Energy In Depth, criticized those claims, accusing the green groups of exaggerating the risk of contamination from oil and gas waste. In 2012, Ohio developed UIC regulations to help mitigate concerns with injection induced seismicity.

Oklahoma officials acknowledged in April that the state’s fracking sites had contributed to a surge in earthquakes there.