Mar 20, 2015
After four years of evaluation, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, issued a News Release along with a 395-page Final Rule on safe, responsible hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on Federal and Tribal lands. This ruling does not apply to fracking on private land.
According to the News Release, the final rule will take affect in 90 days, with provisions as follows:
- Provisions for ensuring the protection of groundwater supplies by requiring a validation of well integrity and strong cement barriers between the wellbore and water zones through which the wellbore passes
- Increased transparency by requiring companies to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing to the Bureau of Land Management through the website FracFocus, within 30 days of completing fracturing operations
- Higher standards for interim storage of recovered waste fluids from hydraulic fracturing to mitigate risks to air, water and wildlife
- Measures to lower the risk of cross-well contamination with chemicals and fluids used in the fracturing operation, by requiring companies to submit more detailed information on the geology, depth, and location of preexisting wells to afford the BLM an opportunity to better evaluate and manage unique site characteristics
In response, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and Western Energy Alliance filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, and the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management claiming:
BLM's rulemaking represents a reaction to unsubstantiated concerns and the administrative record lacks the factual, scientific, or engineering evidence necessary to sustain the agency's final rule.
The IPAA also issued a Press Release which goes into more detail about the lawsuit.
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