Company: ACTG
Filing Date: 2025-03-17
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000934549-25-000004
Chunk: 42

Company: ACACIA RESEARCH CORP
Filing Date: 2025-03-17
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 42
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 Obtaining permits may delay the development of our oil and natural gas projects, including the construction and operation of facilities.

Safe Drinking Water Act.   The Safe Drinking Water Act (“SDWA”) and comparable local and state provisions restrict the disposal, treatment or release of water produced or used during oil and natural gas development. Subsurface placement of fluids (including disposal wells or enhanced oil recovery) is governed by federal or state regulatory authorities that, in some cases, includes the state’s oil and gas regulatory authority or the state’s environmental authority. These regulations may increase the costs of compliance for some facilities.

Hydraulic Fracturing.   Substantially all of our exploration and production operations depend on the use of hydraulic fracturing to enhance production from oil and natural gas wells. Most of our wells would not be economical without the use of hydraulic fracturing to stimulate production from the well. Due to concerns raised relating to potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on groundwater quality, legislative and regulatory efforts at the U.S. federal, state and local levels have been initiated to render permitting and compliance requirements more stringent for hydraulic fracturing or to restrict or prohibit the activity altogether. States in which we operate also have adopted, or have stated intentions to adopt, laws or regulations that mandate further restrictions on hydraulic fracturing, such as imposing more stringent permitting, disclosure and well-construction requirements on hydraulic fracturing operations and establishing standards for the capture of air emissions released during hydraulic fracturing. In addition to state measures, local land use restrictions, such as city ordinances, may restrict drilling in general or hydraulic fracturing in particular. Increased regulation and attention given to the hydraulic fracturing process could lead to greater opposition to oil and natural gas production activities using hydraulic fracturing techniques, which could have an adverse effect on oil and natural gas production activities, including operational delays or increased operating costs in the production of oil and natural gas, or could make it more difficult to perform hydraulic fracturing.

At the federal level, the EPA conducted a study of the potential environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water and groundwater, and concluded that hydraulic fracturing activities can impact drinking water resources under some circumstances, including large volume spills and inadequate mechanical integrity of wells. This study and other studies that may be undertaken by the EPA or other federal agencies could spur initiatives to further regulate hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, or other statutory and regulatory mechanisms. A number of federal agencies are analyzing, or have been requested to review, a variety of environmental issues associated with hydraulic