Just months after Monterey County voters approved a ban on underground injection of oil waste, California regulators have announced a plan to turn an underground water supply in the county over to the oil industry for injection of contaminated waste fluid. The proposal — announced by California's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources — seeks to exempt an aquifer that runs under the town of San Ardo from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

If approved by the incoming Trump administration, this "aquifer exemption" could lead to water contamination, greater risk of oil industry-induced earthquakes and increased crude production from one of California's most carbon-intensive oilfields. California's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources is also considering a similar exemption for E&B Natural Resources in Livermore.

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