14 DAY TRIAL // On January 9, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States announced that, come March 1, companies that carried out oil and gas operations in the waters off Southern California's coast would be required by law to make public information concerning the chemicals they dumped directly into the Pacific.
The chemicals targeted by this new requirement are those resulting from fracking operations, the Agency details in a notice published in the country's Federal Register.
According to EcoWatch, the Agency's asking that companies publicly report the chemicals that they discharge in California's federal waters is part and parcel of a new permit for water pollution from offshore oil and gas operations that the Agency wishes to roll out.
In its notice, the Environmental Protection Agency explains that it decided to review offshore oil and gas dumping permits after several reports raised concerns about the impact of such discharges on both the environment and public health.
Environmentalists say that, even though it is good news that oil and gas companies will be forced by law to publicly report on the composition of any of the fracking fluids that they dump in the ocean, banning hydraulic fracturing altogether is by far the better option.
“Requiring oil companies to report the toxic fracking chemicals they’re dumping into California’s fragile ocean ecosystem is a good step, but the federal government must go further and halt this incredibly dangerous practice,” argues Miyoko Sakashita, the current oceans director of the Center for Biological Diversity.
“Banning fracking in California's coastal waters is the best way to protect the whales and other wildlife, as well as surfers and coastal communities. It’s outrageous that the EPA plans to continue allowing fracking pollution to endanger our ocean,” the environmentalist adds.
The California Coastal Commission estimates that, presently, 50% of the oil platforms operating in federal waters in the Santa Barbara Channel dump either all or at least a part of the wastewater resulting from their activities in the ocean.
This wastewater has been documented to contain not just chemicals that are injected into fracked wells, but also harmful compounds that it collects from the subsurface environment.