RESOLUTION 99.603
0118?635 HYDRAULIC FRACTURING CHARACTERIZATION

COMPACT COMMISSION

JUNE 1999

 

HYDRAULIC FRACTURING CHARACTERIZATION
99.603

RESOLUTION 99.603
URGING CONGRESS TO ENACT S. 724 TO CORRECTLY CHARACTERIZE
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING FOR PURPOSES OF THE SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT
WHEREAS, the United States Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act in order to assure the protection of
the nation’s drinking water sources; and
WHEREAS, in 1997 in the case of Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation v. U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, 118F3d 1467 (11th Cir. 1997), the United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled contrary to
argument of the U.S. EPA that hydraulic fracturing constitutes “underground injection” under the Safe Drinking
Water Act (hereinafter referred to as “SDWA”); and
WHEREAS, since the enactment of the SDWA, the U.S. EPA had never interpreted that hydraulic fracturing
constituted “underground injection” within the SDWA; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to an order of the Eleventh Circuit, the U.S. EPA has initiated proceedings to withdraw from
the State of Alabama and the Alabama Oil and Gas Board “primacy” over Class II underground injection activities;
and
WHEREAS, hydraulic fracturing is a common operation used by the oil and gas exploration and production
industry in all the member states of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission; and
WHEREAS, the regulation of oil and gas exploration and production activities has traditionally been within the
province of the states; and
WHEREAS, the SDWA never was intended to grant to the federal government authority to regulate oil and
gas drilling and production operations such as “hydraulic fracturing” under the Underground Injection Control
program; and
WHEREAS, the member states of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission have laws and regulations,
and personnel to regulate effectively oil and gas exploration and production to provide for safe operations and to
protect the nation’s drinking water sources; and

JUNE, 1999

 HYDRAULIC FRACTURING CHARACTERIZATION
99.603

WHEREAS, the Ground Water Protection Council, a national organization of state and federal ground
water regulators, conducted a survey of oil and gas producing states, which found that there have been no
documented cases of ground water contamination associated with hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane
wells; and
WHEREAS, regulation of hydraulic fracturing as underground injection under the SDWA would impose significant
administrative costs on the states and substantially increase the cost of drilling oil and gas wells with no resulting
environmental benefit; and
WHEREAS, legislation has been introduced in Congress to correct the error of the Eleventh Circuit by clarifying
that hydraulic fracturing does not constitute underground injection within the SDWA.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission hereby declares its
support for S.724 or other legislation providing that hydraulic fracturing does not constitute “underground
injection” within the Safe Drinking Water Act.

JUNE, 1999