EPA Finally Asks Fracking Companies to Self-Report Which Toxins Are Dumped in the Ocean
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is cracking down on oil companies using the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, in ocean waters off the coast of Southern California.
No, the agency isn’t banning fracking or ordering a moratorium while it studies the effects of pumping large amounts of pressurized water, sand and toxic chemicals into the ground to reach oil otherwise inaccessible to drillers.
A new regulation published Thursday by the EPA merely requires the oil companies to self-report what they have only recently been discovered doing in sensitive waters where new drilling has been banned since a devastating 1969 oil spill near Santa Barbara. The changes are part of a new permit, effective March 1, for water pollution discharges from offshore oil and gas operations in federal waters off California.
The Associated Press reported in August last year that it had discovered more than 200 previously unpublicized instances of fracking at vulnerable offshore sites using existing wells. State officials denied any knowledge of the ocean fracking, which took place at six sites over two decades. The news service used public records to identify the drilling in waters off Long Beach, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach. The AP report amplified an online story by Truthout the month before that detailed two of the fracking operations.
http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/epa-finally-asks-fracking-companies-to-self-report-which-toxins-are-dumped-in-the-ocean-140113?news=852150
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