Many federal laws and regulations designed to protect drinking water resources are limited in their ability to address hydraulic fracturing operations on a national level. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 amended the SDWA, limiting the power of USEPA to regulate hydraulic fracturing under the UIC program, except in cases where diesel fuels are used. The Energy Policy Act also broadened CWA exemptions that already existed for oil and gas drilling and production activities to include stormwater discharge from oil and gas construction activities. Furthermore, although the CWA bans most discharges of produced water from hydraulic fracturing operations, there are currently no specific effluent-limitation guidelines that apply to indirect discharges to POTW or CWT. In addition, neither TSCA nor EPCRA currently require the disclosure of chemical constituents in hydraulic fracturing fluids, and OSHA does not require disclosure of specific constituents, quantities, or chemicals that are considered proprietary on MSDS. (Underground injection of produced water and other hydraulic wastewaters, which is the most common form of disposal, is regulated on the federal level under the UIC program.)
展开▼
