Produced Water Act is Passed

The United States Senate recently passed the More Water, More Energy, Less Waste Act of 2007. The legislation could lead to the clean up and usability of produced water from oil and gas drilling and coal-bed methane extraction. Produced water is ground water contaminated when it is brought to the surface during oil and gas drilling or coal-bed methane extraction.

The bipartisan bill would direct the U.S. Department of Interior to evaluate the feasibility of recovering and cleaning produced water for use in irrigation and other purposes. The bill also would authorize a grant program to test produced water-recovery technologies. The grants would help fund pilot projects for this technology in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico, plus one additional site in Arizona, Nevada or California.

The House companion bill to the More Water, More Energy, Less Waste Act of 2007 was passed by the House in March 2007. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing on the bill in April 2007. Now that it has been passed in the Senate, the bill will return to the House for procedural approval, and then will be sent to the White House for President Bush’s signature.

Wyoming Now Requires Licensing

The 2008 Wyoming legislature has passed the Water Well Drilling and Pump Installation Licensure. Until now, Wyoming was the only state within the lower 48 that did not require some form of licensure, certification or registration of water well contractors.

Wyoming has had a voluntary certification program for water well contractors for the last five years. The program started out as a drillers’ licensing bill, but was amended to a voluntary certification bill by the 2003 legislature. The licensing passed the 2007 legislature, but the governor vetoed the final act, due to an inadvertent drafting error that rendered it incapable of accomplishing its intended purpose.

The act, signed by the governor in March 2008, closely resembles the 2007 vetoed act with a few exceptions.

It includes an amendment, creating a fund for operation of the licensing board, using revenues diverted from permitting fees charged by the State Engineer’s Office. The State Engineer’s Office currently is promulgating new rules that will allow an increase in permit application fees up to existing statutory limits.

Other major elements of the act include mandatory licensure of water well contractors by July 1, 2009, and establishing criteria for licensing and license renewal, as well as continuing education requirements. It also provides for license revocation or suspension, and reciprocity for contractors licensed in other states, and repeals certain certification requirements.

Pharmaceuticals In Drinking Water

Senator Frank Lautenberg, Chair of the Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality, recently held a hearing to review the federal response to recent news articles that documented the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies.

During the first panel, Robert Hirsch, Associate Director for Water with the U.S. Geological Survey, described the work of the agency’s water-quality monitoring program. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water, Benjamin Grumbles, emphasized that while EPA is not alarmed by the presence of pharmaceuticals in water supplies, the agency is addressing emerging contaminants, which are defined as contaminants of concern, but about which little health-effects information is known. EPA plans to strengthen the science to better understand and prioritize action on these contaminants. It also will improve risk communication to the public, build partnerships with industry to ensure proper stewardship of pharmaceuticals and use existing regulatory tools under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA also must prioritize listing of new chemicals under the Safe Drinking Act, based on relative risk to public health and the environment, and hundreds of chemicals are under review.

A representative of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America claimed that the pharmaceuticals found in the water supply are at such low concentrations as not to be a threat to the public health, while a representative of the Natural Resources Defense Council countered that scientific studies show that there are long-term health effects from exposure to many of these chemicals.

Improving Wetland And Stream Mitigation