Inadequate Regulations Threaten Groundwater Safety

Despite its clear newsworthiness, this study from an Oakland energy-research group was still squarely in the more complex policy arena. Thus, we were pleased to get news hits from two national policy-focused magazines as well as a trade magazine - publications that will carry the information to the most relevant audiences.

Definitions of “protected groundwater” in 17 state oil and gas regulations are inconsistent and in many cases less protective than federal regulations used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), according to a study published Friday, March 2, 2018 in Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health. The findings demonstrate that the nation’s water supply is vulnerable to contamination from oil and gas production and wastewater disposal despite federal protections for groundwater. Read the press release.

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