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By Susan Gallagher
Helena, Montana (AP)
Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation will become the nation’s first to take the place of the federal government in regulating a type of well associated with oil and natural gas development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
The EPA has authorized Fort Peck’s Assiniboine and Sioux tribes to take over administration of a program – as some state governments have done – that is intended to prevent injection wells from harming underground sources of drinking water. The Montana tribes, rather than the federal government, will issue permits for the wells, which are used for below-ground disposal of salty water and sometimes are injected with fluids to enhance recovery of oil and gas. The tribes will be responsible for enforcing the permits’ conditions.
Helena, Montana (AP)
Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation will become the nation’s first to take the place of the federal government in regulating a type of well associated with oil and natural gas development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
The EPA has authorized Fort Peck’s Assiniboine and Sioux tribes to take over administration of a program – as some state governments have done – that is intended to prevent injection wells from harming underground sources of drinking water. The Montana tribes, rather than the federal government, will issue permits for the wells, which are used for below-ground disposal of salty water and sometimes are injected with fluids to enhance recovery of oil and gas. The tribes will be responsible for enforcing the permits’ conditions.
