Officials Say Missteps, Confusion Led To Wastewater Being Dumped Into State Aquifers

WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - There are fears over contaminated drinking water. New state records show that California regulators have authorized gas and oil companies to inject wastewater into thousands of protected aquifers.

Environmental groups say there's a risk our drinking water could have been contaminated, and the federal government is demanding the state figure out if that's the case.

We printed out a list of the 2,553 wells possibly contaminated according to state records. The list itself is hundreds of pages long and spans our newsroom. These wells span the state of California, and one environmental group says this represents a total breakdown of the state's regulatory system.

California's oil and gas industry generates billions of gallons of wastewater, and it has to go somewhere. The problem is state records show some of that wastewater was pumped into federally-protected aquifers that could be used for drinking water or irrigation.

"This never should've happened," said Briana Mordick, a spokesperson for the National Resources Defense Council. "It can be toxic. It can be many times saltier than seawater. It can contain heavy metals."

The National Resources Defense Council is an environmental group taking state regulators to task.

"We're in the midst of this worst drought in over 1,000 years. The fact that there's even a chance that these drinking water aquifers could be contaminated just shows there's been a complete breakdown of the regulatory system," said Mordick.

Records reveal regulators incorrectly approved more than 2,500 permits, which got us wondering how did this even happen? State officials admit there were myriad mix-ups on the boundaries of aquifers and oil fields and confusion over the rules.

And then there's this:

"We do have a serious data management program. We have no modern data management system. None. Zero," said state oil and gas supervisor Steven Bohlen.

Bohlen told lawmakers at Wednesday's hearing the Department of Conservation, which regulates California's oil and gas industry, is not hiding from the problems.

"It has a lot of problems. I am working to fix those problems," said Bohlen.

His department sent a letter to the environmental protection agency outlining the state's plan. In part, they'll test wells injecting wastewater into protected aquifers to determine the contamination risk and refine the permit approval process. The extent of any contamination is still unknown.

"Our regulators need to be putting public health above oil-industry profits," said Mordick. "I mean, if groundwater contamination is happening, it needs to be stopped immediately."

At today's hearing at the capitol the Department of Conservation went so far as to say they're absolutely confident there is no contamination at all but seven of these 2,500-plus aquifers. As for the remaining seven, in their words they're almost certain there's no contamination.