By Amber Wilson, environmental quality coordinator
Think of Wyoming. Now think of federal environmental rules. The first thing that might come to mind if you know this state is something along the lines of a scuffle, to put it lightly.
Wyoming has a proud tradition and culture of rugged individualism.
Our elected officials, almost universally, favor locally grown answers to Wyoming’s problems—and tend to have great disdain for D.C.-based “solutions.”
And we, as a state, have a well-deserved reputation of setting our own course when it comes to governing.
But I’d like to make the case for why the federal Bureau of Land Management’s proposed hydraulic fracturing rules can and should be embraced by even Wyoming’s most rugged individualists.
And why the citizens of Wyoming should not only support these federal rules but also help to make them stronger.
The BLM’s draft regulations, released in May, would require—with exemptions for “trade secrets”—the disclosure of the chemicals injected underground during hydraulic fracturing on federal and Indian lands and also set stronger nationwide standards for well-bore integrity and the handling and management of “flowback” (waste) water, among other things.
The proposed regulations would lay a broad foundation for ensuring groundwater nationwide is protected during the fracking process. Critics of the proposed rules have said they are redundant and that the states can provide effective supervision themselves.
But despite this push-back from some state leaders, the reality is that at the state level, we don’t have all of the protections offered in the proposed BLM rule. And even if these protections were part of a state policy, the same benefits would be impossible when applied at the state scale.
There’s a simple reason for this. Because state regulations vary, some rules are more effective than others, some can be riddled with loopholes, and many more states still lack regulations altogether.
This brings up the most important point: problems created in a groundwater source or with air quality won’t restrict themselves to the political boundaries in which they were created.
A state could have perfect regulations, but if another state doesn’t create those same or similar regulations and pollutes a shared water source or degrades the quality of a shared airshed as a result, there is a gap that state policy alone cannot fill.
This federal rule would help bridge that gap and boost the states’ protections for public health—namely through groundwater protection.
Thus, while it is important for states to develop their own regulations for fracking (e.g. Wyoming is currently developing a highly valuable and important baseline testing rule), a federal fracking rule is a vital safety net for ensuring a consistent, reliable, minimum standard as states continue to build and strengthen their own regulations.
The BLM’s proposed rule is intended to serve as a minimum standard for all states. The agency proposes to still allow individual states to implement their own stronger rules if they choose, but also to serve as a safety net for the public in states where local rules are insufficiently protective.
Click here or on the image below to comment now!
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Public Involvement: Vital for Creating the Right Rule
The BLM’s proposed regulations for hydraulic fracturing on federal and Indian lands are essential, but—as is the case with any draft environmental regulation—it can and should be improved before it is made final.
There are several components of the proposed rule that the Wyoming Outdoor Council is urging the BLM to revise in order to ensure that people and the environment are protected.
The public can comment on the draft rule until August 23, 2013.
This is the time in which any member of the public can write to the BLM and express support and/or concern for the rule or parts of it, and help the agency ultimately create a rule that is as effective as possible.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council is participating in this process and submitting detailed comments to the BLM in an effort to help improve the rule. We encourage all citizens, if you are able, to do the same.
Click here to comment now! The formal title of the rule is: Oil and Gas; Hydraulic Fracturing on Federal and Indian Lands
Here are some points you might consider making:
- The proposed rule has no requirement for operators to disclose chemicals, even to the BLM, that the operators classify as trade secrets – there should be a requirement for the BLM to verify any trade secret claims before they are withheld from the public.
- The proposed rule lists FracFocus.org as the primary disclosure venue for hydraulic fracturing fluid constituents. We believe this is a serious flaw. FracFocus is not an independent, public interest website. The BLM should create its own, independent, nonpartisan venue for disclosure, one that is subject to government oversight, and that the public can trust in perpetuity.
- Chemical disclosure of fracking fluids should happen before fracking operations, not after as the proposed rule reads.
- Baseline and post-drilling water testing should be required. Neither is currently included in the proposed rule.
- “Type well” testing (testing only the integrity of one well and using the results of that test for all wells deemed similar to it)—suggested in the proposed rule as a means of reducing operator time spent testing well integrity—are not an appropriate shortcut. The process for determining similarity between wells is not outlined in the proposed rule. Given the importance of ensuring the integrity of each production well and the subjectivity of determining well similarities, it is more responsible for operators to perform well integrity tests on each production well they drill.
- The proposed rule does not require the disclosure of the chemicals in flowback fluids—it should.
- The proposed rule allows storage tanks OR lined pits to be used in the management of flowback—it should require ONLY storage tanks.
- The proposed rule allows for “usable water” exemptions—thereby permitting operators to potentially pollute drinkable water. These exemptions should never be allowed.
- The proposed rule exempts from its purview processes such as acidizing, which are processes similar to fracking. The rule should include processes similar to fracking.
- Bonding of new production wells as insurance for reclamation (should a company go bankrupt, abdicate its responsibilities, or improperly abandon its wells) is not required in the proposed rule—it should be.
Amber Wilson, environmental quality coordinator, can be reached at (307) 332-7031 x20 or amber@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.