Oil and gas waste disposal is endangering drinking water sources

The oil and gas industry generates massive volumes of dangerous wastewater each day: In 2021, U.S. wells created almost 1.1 trillion gallons. That's approximately 3 billion gallons every day of produced water and fracking flowback. More than 95 percent of this wastewater was injected underground into waste disposal wells.

This wastewater, generated by fracking and oil and gas production, can be toxic and highly radioactive. When it's injected underground it's regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act's Underground Injection Control (UIC) program, which is supposed to protect underground sources of drinking water from potential dangers in wastewater, including radioactive material, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and more.

Unfortunately, regulation often falls short of protecting communities and natural resources. Back in 2019, NRDC published a report on some of the failures of the UIC program. We concluded that the program's oversight is characterized by a pattern of exemptions and exceptions and a lack of transparency. Our report also did a deep dive into one state's program-West Virginia, with a detailed analysis of state records. We found that the state had failed to effectively administer its UIC program in accordance with the SDWA's requirements and the state's own regulations.

But it's not only West Virginia that has been suspected of lax regulation of underground injection of oil and gas wastes. In California, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found in 2014 that the state was not administering its oil and gas UIC program in accordance with approved statute and regulation. Concerns about problems in Texas and Ohio have also surfaced over the years. Now this issue is in the headlines again and is only getting more threatening as the amount of waste increases around the country.

In Texas, hundreds of millions of gallons of oil and gas wastewater are injected every day and serious problems continue to be reported around the state. Earlier this year, local organizations asked the U.S. EPA to revoke the state's authority to run the program in Texas because "the State of Texas has utterly failed to implement and enforce strong protections to ensure the oil and gas waste from Class II underground injection wells do not contaminate aquifers." Poorly regulated underground waste disposal wells are leaking this waste. In one case in Crane County, wastewater migrated about 12 miles underground before blowing out in 2022; almost 15 million gallons of wastewater shot out of the ground before the leak was stopped. The U.S. EPA has agreed to do an "extensive and thorough technical and legal review" of Texas' regulatory practices.

In Ohio, community organizations came to the similar conclusion that there were "systemic and longstanding failures" by the state to comply with its legal obligations to protect underground sources of drinking water from the dangers of oil and gas waste. There have been leaks miles away from faulty disposal wells-one leak in Noble County reached a stream and ended up killing hundreds of animals. Citizen groups asked EPA to remove Ohio's authority view in 2022, but EPA has not yet taken any action. In the meantime, the state has shut down some waste disposal wells that were found to be leaking and endangering underground sources of drinking water, rivers and streams. It's not enough, but it's a start.

Oklahoma is another state with examples of problematic underground injection disposal wells. In one case, leaking injection wells were discovered in 2019 when wastewater started bubbling out of the ground on a farm in Kingfisher County. The waste flowed across a field all the way to a creek, another farm, and then a pond. Acres of crops were ruined. It's estimated that more than one million gallons of this potentially toxic and radioactive material leaked out of the ground over a one-and-a-half year period.

Special loopholes carved out for the oil and gas industry in our bedrock environmental laws allow its waste to be disposed of in underground injection wells that are not designed to the standards necessary to safely hold hazardous waste-- regardless of how toxic or radioactive this waste might be.

Our federal and state laws for oil and gas waste are too weak to adequately protect public health-it's past time for new laws and regulations to ensure safer methods for the management, storage, transport, and disposal of this waste.

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