Preliminary Data Summary for the Coastal, Onshore and Stripper Subcategories of the Oil Gas Extraction Point Source Category

Abstract

This is one of a series of Preliminary Data Summaries prepared by the Office of Water Regulations and Standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Summaries contain engineering, economic and environmental data that pertain to whether the industrial facilities in various industries discharge pollutants in their wastewaters and whether the EPA should pursue regulations to control such discharges. The summaries were prepared in order to allow EPA to respond to the mandate of section 304(m) of the Clean Water Act, which requires the Agency to develop plans to regulate industrial categories that contribute to pollution of the Nation's surface waters. The Summaries vary in terms of the amount and nature of the data presented. This variation reflects several factors, including the overall size of the category (number of dischargers), the amount of sampling and analytical work performed by EPA in developing the Summary, the amount of relevant secondary data that exists for the various categories, whether the industry had been the subject of previous studies (by EPA or other parties), and whether or not the Agency was already committed to a regulation for the industry. With respect to the last factor, the pattern is for categories that are already the subject of regulatory activity (e.g., Pesticides, Pulp and Paper) to have relatively short Summaries. This is because the Summaries are intended primarily to assist EPA management in designating industry categories for rulemaking. Summaries for categories already subject to rulemaking were developed for comparison purposes and contain only the minimal amount of data needed to provide some perspective on the relative magnitude of the pollution problems created across the categories.

Description

15 pages; available for download at the link below.

Keywords

industrial polluters, oil and gas development, environmental protection

Citation