The US Environmental Protection Agency needs to improve its oversight of permits issued for hydraulic fracturing using diesel fuels, EPA's Office of Inspector General said.
OIG analyzed how EPA officials and states use their authority to manage potential impacts of fracturing on water resources.
Different stages of unconventional oil and gas development have varying potential exposure to water resources, the report said. EPA oversees the Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class II program, which involves injection of fluids for oil and gas activities.
"Evidence shows that companies have used diesel fuels during hydraulic fracturing without EPA or state permits," said
Khadija Walker, a project manager in the OIG's Program Evaluation Office.
The July 16 report recommended that EPA determine whether states and Indian tribes:
• Issue diesel fuel permits for fracturing as required
• Address compliance issues related to issuing permits for fracturing with diesel
• Establish a plan with target dates to determine if a federal rule requiring disclosure of fracturing fluid chemicals is required, she told reporters during a webcast.
Most oil and gas associations and state regulators still were evaluating the report and its recommendations as UOGR went to press.
IPAA comments
The report relies too heavily on outdated information and materials from discredited anti-fracing activists, Independent Petroleum Association of America Executive Vice-Pres. Lee O. Fuller suggested. "It's important to recognize that the use of diesel fuel in fracturing has never resulted in drinking water contamination," he said. "Many of the supporting documents that the OIG uses are either flawed or dated before EPA identified the chemicals it considered to be diesel fuel."
The report noted disparities in the number of wells estimated to have been completed using diesel in the fracturing fluid during 2011-14.
OIG cited an August 2014 Environmental Integrity Project report that concluded at least 33 companies drilled 351 wells in
12 states with diesel without permits.
IPAA's Energy in Depth said the Environmental Integrity Project report failed to differentiate between wells completed using diesel and those using kerosene.
Fuller said data-entry issues, including misidentifying additives that actually did not contain diesel, are behind perceptions diesel has been used widely in fracturing since Congress added a diesel fuel provision to the Safe Drinking Water Act.
FracFocus, an online voluntary disclosure of frac-fluid ingredients, has addressed data-entry accuracy issues, he said. FracFocus is jointly operated by the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission in Oklahoma City.
