The Environmental Protection Agency is pushing for oil and gas officials in Oklahoma to do more to prevent industry-linked earthquakes in the state, reports StateImpact Oklahoma. The federal agency has asked industry regulators to reduce injection volumes, among other changes. A Tulsa company has challenged the restrictions. The EPA also urged oil companies to deal with unreliable databases and difficult-to-access data. Much of StateImpact’s information is derived from this report by EnergyWire’s Mike Soraghan.
The EPA’s review reads, in part:
. . . Implementation has been less than satisfactory. The key advantages to the system include a single database and public GIS viewing capabilities. The disadvantages center on lack of effective IT support to replace the abilities to query and verify data that was present with the earlier system. This results in multiple decentralized data repositories and use of external data in order to ensure that UIC staff can effectively do their jobs.