E.P.A. to Tighten Rules on Wastewater Disposal (FRACKING!)

[Dover]

News Brief

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it would devise stricter rules for the treatment and disposal of toxic wastewater used in natural gas drilling. The agency said it planned to set standards by 2014 for the management of wastewater used in a rapidly growing drilling tactic known as hydrofracking, which involves injecting huge amounts of water to break up shale or coal bed formations and release the gas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/us/epa-to-tighten-rules-on-wastewater-disposal.html?ref=health

[northoftheborder]

1. That's good, but why does it take that long to set standards?

[Dover]

2. A very good point. And this announcement seems nebulous at best.

Here is what it says, which seems to basically amount to open ended promises - "we're gonna get around to it....for sure....at some point...any day now....".

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/bd4379a92ceceeac8525735900400c27/91e7fadb4b114c4a8525792f00542001!OpenDocument


I'm guessing that the company who just bought out that El Paso pipeline company knows something more about all this than we
do. If I was going to make a multi-billion dollar deal in the shale blasting/natural gas industry, I would want assurance about what kind of regulations and added costs I would have going forward. Also it's interesting that this timeline puts it AFTER the election. At any rate, until these regulations are in force the EPA is only giving empty promises at this point.