Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Environmental Groups Poised to Sue EPA over Fracking Disposal

via flickr.com/photos/jayjayp/ (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

When people use fracking to extract oil or natural gas from the ground, it produces vast amounts of wastewater. It’s too toxic to be flushed down the drain. So in Texas, and other states, a lot of it is pumped deep underground into things called disposal wells. Now, as KUT’s Mose Buchele reports for StateImpact Texas  a group of environmental organizations is threatening to sue the EPA over how it regulates the disposal of fracking wastewater. 

The group filed what’s called a notice of intent to sue the EPA over what they say is agency inaction on wastewater disposal. One thing they’re worried about are Earthquakes. Wastewater disposal wells have been linked to quakes in Texas and other states. 

Adam Kron is a lawyer with the Environmental Integrity Project, one of the organizations involved in the lawsuit. He says it’s not enough for the EPA to simply make suggestions on wastewater disposal wells then let states decide what rules to adopt.

"There need to be specific rules for these waste streams for the disposal practices for the types of waste. And EPA has the power to do it. It recently did it for the coal ash waste stream for coal fired power plants. It can do it for oil and gas wastes," Kron says. 

Industry generally opposes stricter regulation of disposal wells, saying new rules are unnecessary and would drive up the cost of oil and gas production.  Kron says the EPA has 60 days to respond. After that the groups could sue to compel the Agency to create stricter regulation.  

Mose Buchele is the Austin-based broadcast reporter for KUT's NPR partnership StateImpact Texas . He has been on staff at KUT 90.5 since 2009, covering local and state issues. Mose has also worked as a blogger on politics and an education reporter at his hometown paper in Western Massachusetts. He holds masters degrees in Latin American Studies and Journalism from UT Austin.