Thank God!! EPA Now Promising To Relax Drilling Waste Rules For Those Poor, Hamstrung Fracking Companies!!
The Trump administration plans to increase “regulatory flexibility” for oil and gas companies trying to find ways to dispose of copious amounts of toxic wastewater.
The wastewater, also known as produced water, comes back to the surface during oil and gas drilling. It contains both proprietary drilling fluids and naturally occurring hazardous compounds found in water underground, which can include organic compounds like arsenic and benzene, a carcinogen. Fracking generates massive quantities of this toxic wastewater that companies are struggling to manage. In the Permian Basin, injecting the water into underground disposal wells has led to earthquakes. The problem has spurred research into new disposal methods.
Under the Environmental Protection Agency’s current rule, discharges of produced water are more restricted in the Eastern United States than in the arid West. The agency announced last week that it will revise that regulation to “help unleash American energy.” Among the items it’s considering: expanding the geographic range where treated oilfield wastewater can be discharged into rivers and streams.
The EPA also said it will review new opportunities for using treated wastewater for industrial and agricultural applications, including for artificial intelligence and data center cooling, and to irrigate rangeland. The agency said it will consider options for extracting lithium and other critical minerals from produced water. The move builds on an EPA report during the first Trump administration that explored additional options for produced water management. “EPA will revise wastewater regulations from the 1970s that do not reflect modern capability to treat and reuse water for good,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in the announcement.
EDIT
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20032025/epa-oil-gas-wastewater-disposal-flexibility/
= new reply since forum marked as read
