Headlines
- Oil and gas waste contains many of the same chemicals that are often regulated as EPA hazardous waste.
- Most oil and gas waste is classified as non-hazardous under RCRA which allows operators to manage their wastes differently.
- The proximity of oil and gas operations to rural and urban populations increases awareness and the potential for waste disposal issues to intersect with the public. Hence, the creation of NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) campaigns.
- Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has grown to become the operational standard to stimulate and increase oil & gas production. Unfortunately, more fracking and increased production translates to increased waste management and disposal requirements.
- The team at EDGE has the expertise and experience needed to help you analyze your options for the management and disposal of oil and gas waste.
Not all oil and gas production waste is treated equally.
For this reason, it makes sense for operators to consider waste-disposal options early in a project-planning process. Operators should establish clear lines of communications with local officials, businesses, and residents who live and work near the drilling and disposal sites as they recognize community perception that improper handling of oil and gas production waste could have negative effects on the surrounding environment, even if the waste is not deemed “hazardous.”
This perception could originate from the fact that oil and gas waste contains many of the same chemicals that are often regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “hazardous waste.” However, most oil and gas waste is classified as “non-hazardous” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which was enacted in 1976 to regulate solid and hazardous waste. This allows oil and gas operators to manage their waste differently than if it was classified as hazardous.
Nonetheless, these waste products are required to be disposed of in a safe manner. Starting in the 1980s, stricter state and federal waste management regulations and increased public awareness of environmental impacts have incentivized operators to reduce or eliminate waste products and to take greater measures to safely dispose of those that are inevitable byproducts of the processes.
Non-hazardous oil and gas waste can be disposed of in many different ways, but the most common are land treatment sites and offsite landfills. Whether onsite or offsite, the pits are lined to prevent leakage of waste materials to the surrounding soil and/or underground water sources. Produced water, (normally mixed with small volumes of petroleum liquids) that is captured and separated from oil and gas streams, is typically transported to a saltwater disposal well and then pumped into a depleted oil and gas reservoir. The saltwater wells require layers of cement and steel to protect shallow groundwater sources.
When oil and gas operations are located near rural or urban populations, the two worlds are more likely to intersect, and public awareness of waste disposal activities is heightened. Some business and property owners–and the elected officials who represent them–may launch NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) campaigns to prevent those operations from occurring near their them.
It makes for a serious tug-of-war scenario: Americans need industry to fuel the economy and produce commodities, but don’t necessarily want the oil and gas operations happening next door.
Take, for example, the light crude oil and natural gas boom created by hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), which has grown to become the operational standard to stimulate and increase oil and gas production. While the stimulus is welcome and needed, an increase in fracking and production activity translates to additional demand for waste management and disposal requirements.
However cautious the regulation, including additional steps oil and gas companies take to protect the land on and around their drilling and disposal operations, the public continues to voice concern about the environmental risks posed by oil and gas production waste.
The team at EDGE has the expertise and experience needed to help you analyze your options for the management and disposal of oil and gas production waste. We are here to help operators make sound decisions on how those waste products are managed and help keep your project running smoothly, cost effectively, and in a forward direction.
Please connect with EDGE’s Gary Donnan and Reiffert Hedgcoxe for more information.
Gary T. Donnan, P.G.
gtdonnan@edge-es.com
Reiffert Hedgcoxe, P.G.
hrhedgcoxe@edge-es.com