In May 2023, GWPC released the 4th Edition of the State Oil & Natural Gas Regulations Designed to Protect Water Resources report. This report, funded partially through the Ground Water Research & Education Foundation, is an update to the 2014 and 2017 editions.
The purpose of this and earlier studies, based on a review of 27 state oil and gas agencies, was to describe selected areas and related elements of state oil and gas regulations designed to protect water resources and to generally describe the rule language and agency approaches related to those areas. This update describes the considerable progress that agencies continue to make as they update their oil and gas regulatory programs.
The report is available on the GWPC Web site.
A supplemental report, titled “A Review of Three Regulatory Elements of State Oil & Gas Programs in 27 States,” will be released sometime in 2023. This additional study will:
- Provide background information concerning Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM); Financial assurance, and Well setback requirements;
- Provide statistics relative to the three elements; and
- Contain a compilation of state oil and gas agency regulatory language relative to the three elements. This compilation does not purport to contain all language which may be related to the elements but only that language specifically cited in each state’s oil and gas agency regulation relative to each element.