Rules

As strong advocates for government-backed climate change mitigation efforts, California officials are viewing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) power plant emission rules as the state’s shining moment with a chance to gain momentum for its now eight-year implementation of comprehensive climate change programs, including a cap-and-trade system that could benefit from the federal EPA rules.

A state legislative committee on Wednesday approved industry-supported rule changes for oil and natural gas drilling in North Dakota, according to the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). The changes take effect April 1.

It’s no secret that exploration and production efforts in Ohio’s Utica Shale have been slowly gaining momentum in the last three years, but if you ask two of the state’s leading regulators, development is about to significantly escalate and they have their work cut out for them.

North Dakota officials on Thursday approved more extensive proposed pipeline regulations and reporting requirements for the oil and natural gas industry, including provisions aimed at cutting the amount of wellhead gas flaring.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has updated its pipeline standard and construction specifications, and its work to finalize draft regulations on rules for wastewater recycling is nearly complete.Shale gas development continues to accelerate in the state and as a result midstream companies plan to spend about $40 billion on infrastructure projects over the next three to five years in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to one analysis by Marcellus Drilling News (see Shale Daily, Oct. 25). At the same time, increasing volumes of fracking waste, mostly trucked in from out of state, and a desire from operators to recycle more of that waste for reuse found state legislators approving the use of wastewater storage impoundments over the summer, leading ODNR to craft new rules for the temporary pits and recycling facilities (see Shale Daily, Oct. 11).Ohio’s pipeline standards were last updated in 2009. The standards provide guidelines and recommendations to help rural landowners and farmers restore soil productivity and agricultural drainage after the installation of pipelines.The standards are not a mandatory requirement, but instead they offer a technical resource that midstream companies, landowners and farmers can use to minimize the impacts of pipeline construction on Ohio’s soil and water resources. The updates to the state’s standards were announced on Friday. In October, ODNR also said it was working on new rules that would govern large football field-sized wastewater impoundments. The pits have been employed by operators in other parts of the Appalachian Basin, primarily as a source of water in dry areas, or as a tool to reduce truck traffic and reuse the water in a closed-loop system.ODNR had said it hoped to complete those rules by the end of the year, but only draft regulations have been completed to date. Before the rule change, Ohio regulations permitted the use of lined impoundments for the temporary storage of freshwater for drilling, but allowed wastewater to only be stored in above ground covered steel tanks. Starting in January, Ohio will begin permitting the wastewater impoundments.The proposed rules call for plastic liners and monitors that could detect leaks and help protect groundwater and storage tanks would get ledges to contain spills.More wastewater recycling plants are planned for the state as well, and early proposals would call for their placement far away from streams and parts of the state prone to flooding.Last year, Ohio injected 14.2 million barrels of waste in underground wells.

To comply with the new state law (SB 4) mandating hydraulic fracturing (fracking) regulations, California oil and natural gas drilling officials on Wednesday designated as “emergency regulations” a set of interim rules that take effect Jan. 1 while permanent rules and an environmental assessment are being finalized (see Shale Daily, Dec. 10).

Dallas City Council members on Wednesday afternoon voted to increase natural gas well setbacks from housing from 300 feet to 1,500 feet as part of a drilling ordinance proposed by the Dallas City Plan Commission (CPC) and favored by residents opposed to drilling within the city limits.

While Gov. Jerry Brown already has declared he will seek to fine-tune its provisions next year, California’s new law (SB 4) regulating hydraulic fracturing (fracking) will not have final rules implemented for the industry to follow until 2015, although the law will be effective on Jan. 1 (seeShale Daily,Sept. 24).

A pair of rules proposed by the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that would list as endangered the gunnison sage grouse, which is found in Colorado and Utah, and designate 1.7 million acres of critical habitat for the bird under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), would cost the two states more than $290 million annually, according to a drafteconomic analysisreleased by FWS last week.