New Rules for Hydrofracking Proposed: This Time in California

Going along with the same theme from my last post, new rules have been proposed for hydrofracking, but this time in California. Governor Jerry Brown’s administration released these draft regulations that would require energy companies, for the first time ever, to disclose what chemicals they are releasing into the ground during the fracking process. These companies would also have to reveal the locations of their wells where this process is occurring.

These proposed regulations have arose because energy companies are looking into tapping the state’s Monterey shale, which runs from Northern California to Los Angeles and contains approximately 15 billion barrels of oil- making it the largest shale formation in the continental U.S.

A recent conclusion was drawn from a Bloomberg News study that in their disclosure reports, companies nationwide withheld one out of every five chemicals they used in fracking. Perhaps this is why nine other states have deemed these new rules appropriate, and why California is proposing them as well.

Under these new rules, companies would be required to disclose chemicals 60 days after completing fracking. They would also have to test their wells before fracking to ensure that leaks don’t occur, and provide the results of those tests to regulators before starting to drill.

With regulations around fracking steadily increasing, transparency has never been more essential for energy companies. By using SaaS based Locus EIM software to better organize, validate, and report all of the data and information involved with fracking, companies would be able to prove that when fracking is engaged in, it is engaged in safely. Locus’ EIM has already been proven to assist companies in showing that obtaining these valuable fossil fuels while remaining environmentally responsible is an attainable feat.

Latest version of proposed regulation changes on hydrofracking expected this week

It’s no secret that hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, has been a popular topic for debate in recent years. Another occurrence revolving around this that has garnered support from some, and opposition from others, is Texas’ oil and gas regulatory agency, the Railroad Commission, updating its rules to address all aspects of the drilling process.

The latest version of the proposed rule changes is expected this week, and will be the largest revamping of Texas well construction regulations since the 1970s. These rules are important to ensure that toxic, fracking-related fluids do not leak into aquifers due to poor construction of oil and gas wells. These regulations will require examinations of things such as the quality of the protective cement placed between layers of pipe in a well, and a pressure test for the pipes themselves.

Keeping with the controversial theme around hydrofracking, some say the rule changes are too restrictive, and others say they aren’t enough. But most agree that hydrofracking does have the potential to contaminate groundwater if not performed correctly.

The contamination of groundwater can occur from faulty drilling or well completion. For the natural gas industry to ensure this doesn’t happen and to stay in compliance with these new regulations, it must keep up with an ongoing monitoring of site conditions and air emissions, management of production water, and the remediation of adverse environmental impacts: all of which involve the collection and analysis of large quantities of complex data.

Owners of hydrofracking sites and drilling companies need to take advantage of existing software tools to better organize their hydrofracking waste and water quality data. By using SaaS based software like Locus’ EIM to organize, manage, validate, visualize, store, and report this information, they can effectively demonstrate that this drilling can be done safely and transparently.