The witnesses told a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing that the exemptions have harmed the land and people’s health. But industry witnesses disputed that.
“There is one set of rules for the oil and gas industry and another set of rules for the rest of America,” said Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Witnesses said the exemption allows companies to inject toxic chemicals into the ground, even near underground aquifers that could be used for drinking water.
Oil and gas companies are also exempted from a Clean Water Act regulation on storm water discharges while a property is under construction. Witnesses said that allows runoff from oil and gas sites to contaminate nearby streams.
Two witnesses who lived in Colorado when oil or gas drilling began near their homes told tearful personal stories about the many health effects they suffer, which they attribute to being exposed to chemicals from the energy development.
Amy Mall, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, testified that Congress must take action that is “long overdue.”
“It is time to end these loopholes,” she said. “The oil and gas industry should be required to comply with the same statutory regulations as any other industry.”
She said simple solutions include using nontoxic alternatives such as water instead of chemicals for hydraulic fracturing, planting groundcover to prevent storm water runoff, recycling drilling fluids and managing waste.
David Bolin, deputy director of the Alabama State Oil and Gas Board, denied that either of the two exemptions has harmed drinking water. He testified that the “evidence would strongly suggest otherwise.” He testified on behalf of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.
Bolin said the exemptions simply remove unnecessary burdens on the oil and gas industry. Regulations have proven adequate to protect human health, he said. There have been no documented cases of hydraulic fracturing contaminating groundwater, he said.
Theo Colborn, president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange, and Dr. Daniel Teitelbaum, a medical toxicologist and professor at Colorado School of Mines and the University of Colorado Health Science Center in Denver, both testified on the effects that exposure to chemicals used in oil and gas drilling can have on human health.
Both called for companies to be required to fully disclose which chemicals they are using at which sites.
Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency is carrying out the storm water regulations as Congress passed them.
He said the agency is conducting a detailed national study of the coalbed methane industry, and in the next couple of years will be in a position to know whether new guidelines are needed for that subcategory of the oil and gas industry.
The EPA released a report in 2004 saying that hydraulic fracturing posed little or no threat to underground sources of drinking water except in the cases where diesel fuel was used as an injection fluid. The agency now has a voluntary agreement with three major companies not to use diesel.
In answer to questions, Grumbles said the agency will be looking for additional information on what other chemicals are used in injection fluids.
The NRDC released a report to coincide with the hearing that looks at oil and gas drilling and the hazardous materials used, loopholes in regulations, technologies to control pollution and the stories of affected individuals. It focused mainly on the Rocky Mountain region.
The report said that a gas well blowout in Clark, Wyo., in August 2006 blew drilling fluids and other materials into the air and ground, contaminating nearby springs.
The report also said that in 2006, crude oil spills reported in Campbell County, Wyo., included a February spill of five barrels; a March spill of 25 barrels into Art Creek; another March spill in Newcastle of 265 barrels; an April spill in Gillette of five barrels into Joe’s Creek; and an October spill of 150 barrels in Wright.
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