EPA to regulate fracking wastewater

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency said it planned to regulate wastewater discharged by companies producing natural gas from shale formations, including chemically laced water used in a controversial extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing.

The EPA’s initiative comes as water-intensive natural gas production has spread around the United States, raising concerns about the impact on drinking-water supplies. The practice, also known as fracking, involves shooting water infused with chemicals and sand at high pressure into shale formations to unlock reservoirs of natural gas.

The EPA will try to determine what to do with water used during fracking, as well as water that is already underground and flows back up the well. Companies now often release the water from the production process into municipal wastewater systems.

Barraged with accusations from some congressional Republicans that EPA regulations kill jobs, the agency was careful to say that the new rules were not meant to crimp natural gas production.

“The president has made clear that natural gas has a central role to play in our energy economy,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.

Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, a trade group, cautiously welcomed the EPA’s plans. “The new guidelines EPA develops will then be used by states to regulate specific wastewater discharges,” he said in an email. “We stand ready to work with EPA and other stakeholders on the development of these guidelines.”

Environmentalists also backed Thursday’s announcement.

The EPA said it would propose rules for wastewater from shale gas production in 2014; it expected to propose similar rules for wastewater from coal-bed methane production in 2013.