By: Angie Burckhalter, Vice President of Regulatory Af The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published and requested comments on its preliminary 2010 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan.
Effluent guidelines are national regulations that control the discharge of pollutants to surface waters and to publicly owned treatment works. On a regular basis, EPA evaluates whether certain discharges require additional regulation.
Currently, EPA is conducting a coalbed methane produced water study under this program to determine if the produced water discharges from coalbed methane (CBM) extraction operations requires additional regulation.
In its Federal Register notice, EPA solicited comments on whether it should expand its existing detailed study of coalbed methane produced water to include all oil and gas exploration, stimulation, and extraction techniques that result in contamination of surface and groundwater, including hydraulic fracturing in all formations.
OIPA has submitted comments to EPA on numerous occasions questioning the need to study CBM extraction discharges without any data demonstrating that problems exist or that environmental benefits would be gained by implementing an effluent limitation guideline (ELG) on those discharges. OIPA stated that ELGs are more appropriate for similar industrial processes where a specific water quality is needed for a process and where the wastewater is of a predictable quality for treatment purposes. In comparison to CBM produced water, the quantity and quality of water that is produced varies from basin to basin, within a particular basin, from coal seam to coal seam, and over the lifetime of a CBM well.
OIPA pointed out that the lack of ELGs does not mean that CBM produced water discharges are not regulated. Produced water from oil and gas operations has been effectively regulated for years by states. OIPA questioned EPA as to how state regulatory programs have failed to regulate CBM produced water discharges adequately.
In regards to EPA expanding its existing CBM study to include all oil and gas exploration, stimulation, and extraction techniques that result in contamination of surface and groundwater, including hydraulic fracturing in all formations, OIPA stated that it was unwarranted. Again, EPA provided no data to suggest there are significant hazards to human health and the environment warranting expansion of the existing CBM study, no information suggesting that significant environmental benefits would be obtained by implementing an ELG, and no information that existing state and federal regulatory programs have failed to adequately address discharges from these operations. OIPA reiterated that these types of operations vary significantly across the country making ELGs inappropriate for discharges from these types of activities.
For more information on EPA’s preliminary 2010 Effluent Guidelines Program Plan, go to www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/304m.
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