Oil And Gas Companies Accused Of Breaking Fracking Rules

An environmental group slammed oil and gas companies in a new report, alleging that the industry has failed to comply with federal permitting requirements surrounding the use of diesel fuel in fracking. 

The Environmental Integrity Project alleged that "the illegal injection of diesel fuel during hydraulic fracturing" has occurred over the last four years "despite repeated denials by the drilling industry," according to a release from the group about its study.

The report, titled "Fracking Beyond The Law," drew on "self-reported data from drilling companies and federal records to document at least 33 companies fracking at least 351 wells across 12 states with fluids containing diesel from 2010 through early August 2014," according to the release.  

Diesel fuels were used to frack wells in Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Kansas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Montana without permits required by the Safe Drinking Water Act, the environmental group said.  

Oil and gas companies maintain that they are not flouting regulations. They pointed to potential mistakes in the records. 

"Lee Fuller, vice president of the trade group Independent Petroleum Association of America, said companies have phased out the use of diesel and now are doing the same for kerosene and fuel oil that also are included in the EPA's definition of diesel," Bloomberg reported. "He said drillers probably erased the diesel classification as they corrected data-entry mistakes." 

"They are going back and finding their original reports were incorrect," Fuller said in the report. 

Officials at Bill Barrett Corp., a fracking company, issued a similar response. 

The entry in a chemical disclosure registry "for the 7,000-foot well was in error regarding the use of diesel and it has been corrected in the past few days, [the company said]," according to the Salt Lake Tribune. 

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