United States
Environmental Protection
.Agency
Office of Water
www.epa.gov
EPA 821-F-15-002
March 2015
Proposed Effluent Limitations
Guidelines and Standards for Oil and
Gas Extraction
Summary
EPA proposes technology-based pretreatment
standards under the Clean Water Act for discharges
of pollutants into publicly owned treatment works
(POTWs) from existing and new unconventional oil
and natural gas (UOG) extraction facilities. The
proposed rule would better protect public health, the
environment, and the operational integrity of POTWs
by establishing pretreatment standards that would
prevent the discharge of pollutants in wastewater
from onshore UOG extraction facilities to POTWs.
This proposed rule would fill a gap in existing federal
wastewater regulations to ensure that the current
practice of not sending wastewater discharges from
this sector to POTWs continues into the future.
Background
Responsible development of America's oil and gas
resources offers important economic, energy
security, and environmental benefits. EPA is working
with states and other stakeholders to understand and
address potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing, an
important process involved in producing UOG, so the
public has confidence that oil and natural gas
production will proceed in a safe and responsible
manner. EPA is moving forward with several
initiatives to provide regulatory clarity with respect to
existing laws and using existing authorities, where
appropriate, to enhance public health and
environmental safeguards.
UOG extraction wastewater can be generated in large
quantities and contain constituents that are
potentially harmful to human health and the
environment. Wastewater from UOG wells often
contains high concentrations of salt content, also
called total dissolved solids or TDS. The wastewater
can also contain various organic chemicals, inorganic
chemicals, metals, and naturally-occurring
radioactive materials (also referred to as
technologically enhanced naturally occurring
radioactive material or TENORM). This potentially
harmful wastewater creates a need for appropriate
wastewater management infrastructure and
practices.
Historically, operators primarily managed their
wastewater via underground injection in disposal
wells (where available). Where UOG wells were
drilled in areas with limited underground injection
wells, and/or there was a lack of wastewater
management alternatives, it became more common
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for operators to look to public and private
wastewater treatment facilities to manage their
wastewater. Because they are not typical of POTW
influent wastewater, some UOG extraction
wastewater constituents:
• can be discharged, untreated, from the POTW to
the receiving stream
• can disrupt the operation of the POTW (for
example, by inhibiting biological treatment)
• can accumulate in biosolids (also called sewage
sludge), limiting their use, and
• can facilitate the formation of harmful
disinfection by-products.
Based on the information reviewed as part of this
proposed rulemaking, this proposed prohibition of
discharges to POTWs reflects current industry
practice. EPA has not identified any existing onshore
UOG extraction facilities that currently discharge
wastewater to POTWs. However, because onshore
unconventional oil and gas extraction facilities have
discharged to POTWs in the past, and because the
potential remains that some facilities can consider
discharging to POTWs in the future, EPA proposes
this rule.
For More Information
You can view the Federal Register Notice on EPA's
website for Unconventional Extraction in the Oil and
Gas Industry at
http://water.epa.gov/scitech/wastetech/guide/oiland
gas/unconv.cfm. In addition, the proposed rule will
be available at http://www.regulations.gov under
Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2014-0598. The public
comment period for this proposed rule is 60 days.
You may also contact Lisa Biddle at
Biddle.Lisa@epa.gov.
The data reviewed by EPA show that the UOG
extraction industry is not currently managing
wastewaters by sending them to POTWs. Therefore,
the proposed rule causes no incremental change to
current industry practice that EPA measured as
compliance costs or monetized benefits.
Still, EPA has considered that while states, localities,
and POTWs are not currently approving these
wastewaters for acceptance at POTWs, some POTWs
continue to receive requests to accept UOG
extraction wastewater. This proposed rule would
provide regulatory certainty and would eliminate the
burden on POTWs to analyze such requests.
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