Perfect storm

March 14, 2003
The US Environmental Protection Agency this month said small oil and gas production sites get at least a 2-year reprieve from new stormwater runoff rules.

Maureen Lorenzetti

The US Environmental Protection Agency this month said small oil and gas production sites get at least a 2-year reprieve from new stormwater runoff rules.

Producers now have until Mar. 10, 2005, to comply with the expanded permit system. And in the interim, the agency says it will study whether the tougher requirements are "inappropriate" and needed at all.

New Clean Water Act regulations require small construction sites and some municipal sewer systems to seek special permits. These new permits, among other things, require pollution-prevention plans for mitigating sediment runoff and other water pollutants.

Assumptions made
In late 1999, EPA published a final rule expanding its stormwater permitting program. It required affected parties to have permits by Mar. 10, 2003, for construction sites that disturb 1-5 acres.
At that time regulators assumed few, if any, oil and gas exploration, production, processing, or treatment operations or transmission facilities would be affected by the rule.

Industry officials objected to this assessment. They argued stormwater runoff from oil and gas drilling sites has minimal to no impact on surface waters compared with commercial construction. They said activities covered by general land drilling permits last only a few days to 2 weeks. Producers further argued that the runoff rule, if finalized, could cause serious delays to existing leases and discourage domestic production.

"The remote, dispersed, and sporadic nature of pipeline construction projects is integral to oil and gas production activities and different from other construction activities," the American Petroleum Institute said.

Environmental groups and their advocates in the US Senate maintain there is no evidence to suggest that oil and gas producers deserve special treatment.
"While thousands of small communities struggle to develop management plans and find the resources to support their compliance with federal stormwater rules, the oil and gas industry gets a break," a letter last month from six senators to EPA said.

OMB role
As recently as last fall EPA still planned to have producers follow the new permit system. But industry mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign with the White House's Office of Management and Budget to delay or exempt industry from the new rules.

In its latest action, EPA said that since it first promulgated the rule, the agency received information from the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration that made them decide more study was needed. EIA says about 30,000 oil and gas sites/year may be affected by the updated stormwater regulations.

But environmentalists and their congressional champions say that 30,000 figure is completely unsubstantiated. On Mar. 6, they called on EPA, under OMB's new data-quality initiative to review that claim and check it for accuracy.
"Your correction of the agency's mistakes during this rulemaking process will protect water quality for future generations and protect the integrity of the rulemaking process," wrote Senate Environment and Public Works ranking member Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) and three colleagues.

(Author's e-mail: [email protected])