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Agency leaders admit big failure to protect water from oil pollution
“The ongoing contamination of California’s drinking and irrigation water with toxic oil industry waste fluids is yet another example of why oil companies can’t be trusted to operate while ensuring the protection of our communities’ health and the environment,” Dan Jacobson, State Director of Environment California said on behalf of Californians Against Fracking.
Photo of part of the Pacific Islander contingent at the "March for Climate Leadership" in Oakland on February 7, the largest ant-fracking protest in U.S. history. Photo by Dan Bacher.
Photo of part of the Pacific Islander contingent at the "March for Climate Leadership" in Oakland on February 7, the largest ant-fracking protest in U.S. history. Photo by Dan Bacher.
Agency leaders admit big failure to protect water from oil pollution
Anti-fracking coalition responds to Senate hearing on oil regulations
by Dan Bacher
The California State Senate held an oversight hearing in Sacramento on March 10 to examine why California oil regulators issued hundreds of illegal permits that allowed the oil industry to inject toxic wastewater directly into protected aquifers. During the hearing, state and federal agency leaders admitted that that they failed to protect California's precious water supplies from fracking and other methods of oil extraction.
The hearing was held the same day the that the Environmental Working Group released a report revealing that the recent discovery of high levels of benzene in wastewater from oil and gas fracking operations in California turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg. "An extensive review of a year-old state data by the Environmental Working Group has found that wastewater from hundreds of fracking operations was heavily contaminated with a toxic stew of chemicals known to cause cancer, reproductive harm and nervous system damage," according to the report. (http://www.ewg.org/release/california-s-fracking-wastewater-full-toxic-chemicals)
Speakers at the Joint Hearing of the California Senate Natural Resources and Water and Environmental Quality Committees included Mark Nechodom, Ph.D, Director, Department of Conservation; Jonathan Bishop, Chief Deputy Director, State Water Resources Control Board; Matthew Rodriguez, Secretary, the California Environmental Protection Agency; and John Laird, Secretary, the California Natural Resources Agency.
"We all fell down on the job," admitted Director Nechodom. He also said engineers at the Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) monitoring wastewater injection were "not fully qualified."
Legislators questioned State Water Resources Control Board officials why they allowed the oil industry to operate oil injection wells adjacent to aquifers with high quality water.
"We relied on their expertise," Jonathan Bishop, chief deputy director of the board, said, referring to DOGGR. "In hindsight, maybe we should have done independent analysis. We didn't."
Before the hearing, a news release from the California Natural Resources Agency touted the "significant progress made by water quality and oil recovery regulators on ensuring the protection of drinking water," noting that the U.S. EPA had approved the state's plan to "move forward."
“Protecting human and environmental health and safety are our top priority, so we appreciate the U.S. EPA’s approval of our plan to move forward,” said Secretary Laird. “We are working closely with our federal counterparts to ensure that now and in the future the public and an important part of our economy can be protected and in balance.”
The hearing, "Ensuring Groundwater Protection: Is the Underground Injection Control Program Working?,” took place as California continues in a record drought and the oil industry is planning to expand the environmentally destructive practice of fracking in California.
Representatives of Californians Against Fracking weren't impressed with the state's plan approved by the U.S. EPA - and released the following statement at the conclusion of the hearing about the oil regulators’ failure to protect groundwater from oil industry pollution. The group called on the regulators to immediately shut down all illegal injection wells.
“The ongoing contamination of California’s drinking and irrigation water with toxic oil industry waste fluids is yet another example of why oil companies can’t be trusted to operate while ensuring the protection of our communities’ health and the environment,” Dan Jacobson, State Director of Environment California said on behalf of Californians Against Fracking.
“Years of negligence by state regulators as oil companies have ramped up the use of dangerous methods like fracking have compromised our most precious resource—water. All illegal injection wells need to be shut down immediately to stop the ongoing damage and Gov. Brown needs to put a system in place to ensure regulators are enforcing laws meant to protect our water and health. Allowing more fracking and other new techniques will compound this crisis. That’s why more than 150 groups have petitioned Gov. Brown for an immediate halt to fracking and other dangerous oil development," said Jacoboson.
At the hearing, state oil regulators also admitted that they allow cyclic steam injection to routinely occur at pressures high enough to crack the formation, in violation of state and federal law, according to Jacobson.
"The state’s top water regulator also confirmed that drinking water aquifers have been contaminated with oil industry waste fluid," noted Jacobson. "In addition, while some limited testing of nearby water wells has been conducted, that the state lacks complete information on water wells and so cannot guarantee that all at-risk water wells have even been located."
Background materials and video link available at http://sntr.senate.ca.gov/2014informationaloversighthearings
The oil industry is the most powerful corporate lobby in Sacramento - and it has dramatically increased its spending in recent years as it faces growing opposition to the expansion of fracking and other extreme oil extraction methods in California. The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) spent $8.9 million on lobbying state officials in 2014, nearly double what it spent in the previous year. WSPA spent $4.67 million in 2013.
From 2005 to 2014, the oil industry spent an astounding $266 million influencing the Governor, the Legislature and other California officials, according to Stop Fooling California.
For an in-depth investigation of oil industry spending and influence in California, please read my article in the East Bay Express: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/02/06/big-oil-group-spent-89-million-last-year-lobbing-jerry-brown-and-california-officials
Californians Against Fracking is a coalition of about 200 environmental business, health, agriculture, labor, political and environmental justice organizations working to win a statewide ban on fracking and other dangerous extraction techniques in California. Follow @CAagainstFrack on Twitter.
Anti-fracking coalition responds to Senate hearing on oil regulations
by Dan Bacher
The California State Senate held an oversight hearing in Sacramento on March 10 to examine why California oil regulators issued hundreds of illegal permits that allowed the oil industry to inject toxic wastewater directly into protected aquifers. During the hearing, state and federal agency leaders admitted that that they failed to protect California's precious water supplies from fracking and other methods of oil extraction.
The hearing was held the same day the that the Environmental Working Group released a report revealing that the recent discovery of high levels of benzene in wastewater from oil and gas fracking operations in California turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg. "An extensive review of a year-old state data by the Environmental Working Group has found that wastewater from hundreds of fracking operations was heavily contaminated with a toxic stew of chemicals known to cause cancer, reproductive harm and nervous system damage," according to the report. (http://www.ewg.org/release/california-s-fracking-wastewater-full-toxic-chemicals)
Speakers at the Joint Hearing of the California Senate Natural Resources and Water and Environmental Quality Committees included Mark Nechodom, Ph.D, Director, Department of Conservation; Jonathan Bishop, Chief Deputy Director, State Water Resources Control Board; Matthew Rodriguez, Secretary, the California Environmental Protection Agency; and John Laird, Secretary, the California Natural Resources Agency.
"We all fell down on the job," admitted Director Nechodom. He also said engineers at the Department of Conservation's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) monitoring wastewater injection were "not fully qualified."
Legislators questioned State Water Resources Control Board officials why they allowed the oil industry to operate oil injection wells adjacent to aquifers with high quality water.
"We relied on their expertise," Jonathan Bishop, chief deputy director of the board, said, referring to DOGGR. "In hindsight, maybe we should have done independent analysis. We didn't."
Before the hearing, a news release from the California Natural Resources Agency touted the "significant progress made by water quality and oil recovery regulators on ensuring the protection of drinking water," noting that the U.S. EPA had approved the state's plan to "move forward."
“Protecting human and environmental health and safety are our top priority, so we appreciate the U.S. EPA’s approval of our plan to move forward,” said Secretary Laird. “We are working closely with our federal counterparts to ensure that now and in the future the public and an important part of our economy can be protected and in balance.”
The hearing, "Ensuring Groundwater Protection: Is the Underground Injection Control Program Working?,” took place as California continues in a record drought and the oil industry is planning to expand the environmentally destructive practice of fracking in California.
Representatives of Californians Against Fracking weren't impressed with the state's plan approved by the U.S. EPA - and released the following statement at the conclusion of the hearing about the oil regulators’ failure to protect groundwater from oil industry pollution. The group called on the regulators to immediately shut down all illegal injection wells.
“The ongoing contamination of California’s drinking and irrigation water with toxic oil industry waste fluids is yet another example of why oil companies can’t be trusted to operate while ensuring the protection of our communities’ health and the environment,” Dan Jacobson, State Director of Environment California said on behalf of Californians Against Fracking.
“Years of negligence by state regulators as oil companies have ramped up the use of dangerous methods like fracking have compromised our most precious resource—water. All illegal injection wells need to be shut down immediately to stop the ongoing damage and Gov. Brown needs to put a system in place to ensure regulators are enforcing laws meant to protect our water and health. Allowing more fracking and other new techniques will compound this crisis. That’s why more than 150 groups have petitioned Gov. Brown for an immediate halt to fracking and other dangerous oil development," said Jacoboson.
At the hearing, state oil regulators also admitted that they allow cyclic steam injection to routinely occur at pressures high enough to crack the formation, in violation of state and federal law, according to Jacobson.
"The state’s top water regulator also confirmed that drinking water aquifers have been contaminated with oil industry waste fluid," noted Jacobson. "In addition, while some limited testing of nearby water wells has been conducted, that the state lacks complete information on water wells and so cannot guarantee that all at-risk water wells have even been located."
Background materials and video link available at http://sntr.senate.ca.gov/2014informationaloversighthearings
The oil industry is the most powerful corporate lobby in Sacramento - and it has dramatically increased its spending in recent years as it faces growing opposition to the expansion of fracking and other extreme oil extraction methods in California. The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) spent $8.9 million on lobbying state officials in 2014, nearly double what it spent in the previous year. WSPA spent $4.67 million in 2013.
From 2005 to 2014, the oil industry spent an astounding $266 million influencing the Governor, the Legislature and other California officials, according to Stop Fooling California.
For an in-depth investigation of oil industry spending and influence in California, please read my article in the East Bay Express: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/02/06/big-oil-group-spent-89-million-last-year-lobbing-jerry-brown-and-california-officials
Californians Against Fracking is a coalition of about 200 environmental business, health, agriculture, labor, political and environmental justice organizations working to win a statewide ban on fracking and other dangerous extraction techniques in California. Follow @CAagainstFrack on Twitter.
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If you think California's administrative agencies involved with oil field waste injection wells have screwed up the state's underground drinking water aquifers, wait until you read your California Earthquake Agency homeowners standard earthquake insurance policy at Paragraphs 18 and 8:
http://www.earthquakeauthority.com/insurancepolicies/mobile/PublishingImages/Pages/default/Standard%20Homeowners%20Policy%20Sample.pdf
If an earthquake is caused by a man-made condition, like an oil field waste injection well, you have no earthquake insurance coverage.
http://www.earthquakeauthority.com/insurancepolicies/mobile/PublishingImages/Pages/default/Standard%20Homeowners%20Policy%20Sample.pdf
If an earthquake is caused by a man-made condition, like an oil field waste injection well, you have no earthquake insurance coverage.
How is it that in 2015 (or any time since let's say the early 1900s) state regulators would deliberately decide not to do water quality tests and thorough testing of the oil companies' fracking operations and instead they would rely on the expertise of the oil companies?
Of course they have the expertise. That is not the issue. The issue is their profit motive and the fact that that motive directly conflicts with the public interest in clean water. Where there is no transparency and no accountability the oil companies will pollute, pollute, pollute for profit just as they always have. Do you have to have a lesson in U.S. history or world history or oil industry history to know that? How can the regulators be so damned clueless? They were essentially letting the oil companies do their (regulatory) jobs for them. Well isn't that special?! How convenient. That is a complete failure of their roles as regulators, failure to do their jobs to protect the water, the public, and to keep the oil companies accountable. They might as well just come right out in the open and say we have decided to let the oil companies actually do our jobs! Which is what was happening. Unbelievable.
How can the public expect the regulators to protect the water and the public interest EVER in California after this? Every single one of those people ought to be fired, fined, and prosecuted for dereliction of duty and violation of their oath of office and whatever else. Nothing can make up for all the pollution they allowed the oil companies to do.
Of course they have the expertise. That is not the issue. The issue is their profit motive and the fact that that motive directly conflicts with the public interest in clean water. Where there is no transparency and no accountability the oil companies will pollute, pollute, pollute for profit just as they always have. Do you have to have a lesson in U.S. history or world history or oil industry history to know that? How can the regulators be so damned clueless? They were essentially letting the oil companies do their (regulatory) jobs for them. Well isn't that special?! How convenient. That is a complete failure of their roles as regulators, failure to do their jobs to protect the water, the public, and to keep the oil companies accountable. They might as well just come right out in the open and say we have decided to let the oil companies actually do our jobs! Which is what was happening. Unbelievable.
How can the public expect the regulators to protect the water and the public interest EVER in California after this? Every single one of those people ought to be fired, fined, and prosecuted for dereliction of duty and violation of their oath of office and whatever else. Nothing can make up for all the pollution they allowed the oil companies to do.
For more information:
http://davis911truth.org/
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