This past March the Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released new rules on hydraulic fracturing activities on federally managed lands. The BLM oversees and performs regulatory duties on around 700 million subsurface acres of federal mineral estates and 56 million acres of Indian mineral estates. The new rule aimed to review and update regulations of oil and gas development on public and tribal lands first established in the 1980s. BLM studied current state/tribal regulations, consulted with environmental experts, and reviewed 1.5 million public comments. According to the BLM press release the key components of the rule include the following:
- Provisions for ensuring the protection of groundwater supplies by requiring a validation of well integrity and strong cement barriers between the wellbore and water zones through which the wellbore passes
- Increased transparency by requiring companies to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing to the Bureau of Land Management through the website FracFocus, within 30 days of completing fracturing operations
- Higher standards for interim storage of recovered waste fluids from hydraulic fracturing to mitigate risks to air, water and wildlife
- Measures to lower the risk of cross-well contamination with chemicals and fluids used in the fracturing operation, by requiring companies to submit more detailed information on the geology, depth, and location of preexisting wells to afford the BLM an opportunity to better evaluate and manage unique site characteristics
