San Luis Obispo County residents and members of the Center for Biological Diversity will protest today outside a state-run “aquifer exemption” hearing aimed at helping an oil company get federal permission to dump oil waste fluid into the county’s underground water. There are at least 100 water-supply wells within a mile of this oilfield... 

The protest targets a Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources hearing on Freeport McMoRan’s application for an aquifer exemption in the Arroyo Grande oilfield, north of Pismo Beach. Subject to approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the proposed aquifer exemption would allow injection wells to operate in the area, either for oil recovery or oil wastewater disposal. 

This is the first attempt by the oil industry to seek an aquifer exemption following revelations earlier this year that California regulators have been allowing oil companies to dump toxic waste into scores of protected underground water supplies across California (interactive map), in violation of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act...

Oil-industry wastewater can contain high levels of benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals. State oil officials’ own study of oil wastewater around the state has detected benzene levels at thousands of times the federal limits. 

“Drilling hundreds of new wells in the Arroyo Grande oilfield will dramatically raise the risk of polluting water supplies but those expansion plans aren’t even mentioned in Freeport’s aquifer exemption application,” Golden-Krasner said. “State officials need to consider those risks and stop this dangerous process in its tracks.”

*Sourced by RepRisk due diligence on ESG and business conduct risks, www.reprisk.com.