Oil Companies Ignore Deadline, Continue to Dump Toxic Waste into Protected Aquifers

Residents call on officials to protect three Ventura County aquifers

Ventura County residents are urging state officials to protect the community’s water and demand state oil regulators deny scores of aquifer exemptions. This week, regulators ignored a federal EPA deadline for submitting applications that would allow oil companies to continue to pump waste into aquifers protected under the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

If approved, these exemptions would allow the oil industry to continue contaminating underground water sources with dangerous chemicals. Among them are three aquifers in Ventura County: one in an agricultural area near Oxnard, another in The Los Padres National Forest near the Sespe Condor Sanctuary and one near Lake Piru.

“For the state to approve these applications and give away that groundwater to the oil industry is shortsighted,” said Tomás Rebecchi, Ventura County organizer for Food & Water Watch. “The Safe Drinking Water Act protects not only the water we use today, but water we may need in the future. If the oil industry contaminates this precious resource, it will be lost forever.”

Oil companies had two years to file for the necessary exemptions with the EPA by the February 15, 2017 deadline, or shut the wells down. The deadline came following revelations that oil producers have been allowed to dump toxic waste into scores of protected underground water supplies across the state (interactive map), in violation of federal and state water-protection laws. Last month, oil regulators told the EPA they would ignore the deadline, and gave no date by which they would stop toxic waste injection into protected Ventura County and California aquifers. The oil industry sued California on Inauguration Day, calling its regulation of wastewater injection “unconstitutional overreach.”

“Since Trump’s EPA will likely rubber-stamp these applications, it is crucial for Californians to demand that state regulators protect our water,” said Rebecchi. “Now is the moment for state officials, including Governor Brown, to stand up against an anti-environmental administration and ensure that our water is protected for future generations.”

Billions of gallons of wastewater have been injected underground in recent the years and it is likely that some aquifers are irreparably contaminated. Oil-industry wastewater can contain high levels of benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals.

“We don’t know the true extent of the damage, and the extent of the degradation is really hard to calculate,” said Ash Lauth with the Center for Biological Diversity. “With regulation foe Scott Pruitt now heading the EPA, we need state legislators like Sen. Hanna-Beth Jackson, Assembly Member Monique Limón and Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin to stand up for up our water, and demand regulators deny these exemptions.”

Map Source: USGS

Background 

California’s oil and gas fields produce billions of gallons of contaminated wastewater each year, and much of this contaminated fluid is injected underground. Oil-industry wastewater can contain high levels of benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals. State oil officials’ own study of oil

throughout California has detected benzene levels at thousands of times the federal limits. While the current extent of contamination is cause for grave concern, the long-term threat posed by the unlawful wastewater disposal may be even more devastating. Underground migration of chemicals like benzene can take years.

Food & Water Watch champions healthy food and clean water for all. We stand up to corporations that put profits before people, and advocate for a democracy that improves people’s lives and protects our environment.

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