Groups sue EPA

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A coalition of community and environmental organizations recently filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The lawsuit calls for regulations to stop oil and gas companies from disposing and handling drilling and fracking wastes that the groups say threaten public health and the environment.

“Updated rules for oil and gas wastes are almost 30 years overdue, and we need them now more than ever,” said Adam Kron, senior attorney at the Environmental Integrity Project. “Each well now generates millions of gallons of wastewater and hundreds of tons of solid wastes, and yet EPA’s inaction has kept the most basic, inadequate rules in place. The public deserves better than this.”

The groups that filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia are the Environmental Integrity Project, Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthworks, Responsible Drilling Alliance, San Juan Citizens Alliance, West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

The lawsuit asks the court to set strict deadlines for the EPA.

The organizations want the EPA to issue rules that address problems including the disposal of fracking wastewater in underground injection wells, which accept hundreds of millions of gallons of oil and gas wastewater and have been linked to numerous earthquakes, including ones in the Mahoning Valley.

They also want the EPA to ban the practice of spreading fracking wastewater onto roads or fields. They would like to see a requirement made for landfills and ponds that receive drilling and fracking waste to be built with adequate liners and structural integrity to prevent spills and leaks into groundwater and streams.