An oil company with a long history of hazardous spills in California wants state and federal permission to dispose of contaminated waste fluid into an underground water supply in Livermore. The proposal, announced by California's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, seeks to exempt an aquifer in eastern Alameda County from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. State officials are now taking public comments and will hold a January 11 hearing on the proposal.

E&B Natural Resources, the oil company seeking the exemption, was cited last year by Alameda County officials for improper disposal of hazardous waste and failing to immediately notify authorities about the release of hazardous material. E&B has reported at least 31 spills of oil or other hazardous materials in four different California counties in the past 10 years, according to state records.

The exemption application argues that the Greenville Fault on the aquifer’s border will help contain waste fluid injected into this zone. But Greenville is an active fault that suffered a magnitude 5.8 earthquake near Livermore in 1980.

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