Groundwater contamination from the fossil fuel industry is a widespread problem in the country. In California, the Center for Biological Diversity is suing the Department of Conservation over allowing unpermitted wastewater injections into underground sources of water in violation of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and the state's Underground Injection Control program. In New Mexico, High Country News reports that BLM is allowing the same thing. When it comes to agency capture, fossil fuel companies seem to have captured just about every agency that has any jurisdiction over groundwater supplies.
The arrogance of the regulators was summed up nicely by David Mankiewicz, the assistant field manager of BLM's Farmington, MN office: “If they (critics) think it’s illegal, then sue us and lose.” Well, it seems like the BLM is now losing in court. And, they are ignoring the court's orders.
"In May, the 10th District U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the Bureau of Land Management had failed to consider cumulative water use when it allowed drilling in the Chaco region, therefore violating federal environmental law. Yet the agency continues to issue new drilling permits, in defiance of the court’s decision."
"The court issued a stern rebuke, concluding that the federal agency 'needed to — but did not — consider the cumulative impacts of water resources associated with the 3,960 reasonably foreseeable horizontal Mancos Shale wells.' The permit approvals were therefore 'arbitrary and capricious and violated NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act).'”
"That apparently isn’t stopping the BLM, however. The Farmington office is moving forward, permitting 40 new wells, 22 miles of pipeline and 6 miles of access road in the Crow Mesa Wildlife Area some 30 miles from Chaco Canyon. It’s as if BLM officials are, once again, daring environmentalists to sue. But this time, given the precedent set in May, the environmentalists are likely to win."