Loose Regs Allowed Calif. Oil Industry To Endanger Protected Aquifers

"SAN FRANCISCO — Lax oversight by the state has allowed the oil and gas industry to contaminate protected water aquifers and endanger the public, California regulators acknowledged Tuesday while pledging to intensify supervision.

When it comes to a balance between supporting the oil and gas industry in California — the country's No. 3 oil-producing state — and protecting public resources and public safety, 'I would suggest that ... there has not been the proper balance between these two mandates' for state oil and gas regulators, John Laird, the state secretary of natural resources, told state senators in a scathing senate hearing. 'And this is our chance to get it right.'

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, set strict new deadlines for California to start dealing with more than 2,000 oil-and-gas industry injection wells that state regulators had allowed to inject into underground water reserves that are federally protected as current or potential sources of water for drinking and irrigation. In an EPA letter made public Tuesday, federal regulators also joined some state lawmakers in challenging state plans to continue issuing new permits for oilfield injection in certain protected water aquifers."

Ellen Knickmeyer reports for the Associated Press March 10, 2015.