Calif State Can't Protect Groundwater & L.A. DWP Can't Collect Bills

The agencies charged with overseeing oil production and protecting California’s water sources from the industry’s pollution all fell down on the job. The California Department of Conservation, the department’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources and the state Water Resources Control Board promised  a top-down overhaul of their regulation of the disposal of oil field wastewater.

Some state legislators have characterized agency practices as corrupt and inept.  Agency officials have attributed the errors to haphazard record-keeping and antiquated data collection. And they have said that initial tests on nine drinking water supply wells found no benzene or other contaminants. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has called the state’s errors “shocking” and said California’s oil field wastewater injection program does not comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

State legislators believed it was not a lack of regulation (new laws). but a lack of enforcement of existing regulations.  State regulatory officials have noted that the oil industry’s technology had outpaced the state’s regulations, many of which have remained unchanged for decades.