Company: BSM
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001628280-25-007730
Chunk: 145

Company: Black Stone Minerals, L.P.
Filing Date: 2025-02-25
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 145
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. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), issue regulations that carry substantial administrative, civil, and criminal penalties and may result in injunctive obligations for non-compliance. These laws and regulations may delay or create significant financial burdens on operators' ability to explore for, develop, and produce oil and gas from our properties. The strict, joint, and several liability nature of such laws and regulations could impose liability upon our operators, or us as working interest owners if the operator fails to perform, regardless of fault. Moreover, it is not uncommon for neighboring landowners and other third parties to file claims for personal injury and property damage allegedly caused by the release of hazardous substances, hydrocarbons, or other waste products into the environment. In addition, many environmental statues contain citizen suit provisions, and environmental groups frequently use these provisions to oppose oil and natural gas exploration and development activities and related projects. The long-term trend in environmental regulation has been towards more stringent regulations, and any changes that impact our operators and result in more stringent and costly pollution control or waste handling, storage, transport, disposal, or cleanup requirements could materially adversely affect our business and prospects. Below is a summary of environmental laws applicable to operations on our properties.

Waste Handling

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended (“RCRA”), and comparable state statutes and regulations promulgated thereunder, affect oil and natural gas exploration, development, and production activities by imposing requirements regarding waste handling. Individual states administer some or all of the provisions of RCRA, sometimes in conjunction with their own, more stringent requirements. While waste products from the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas typically constitute “solid wastes” that are subject to less stringent non-hazardous waste requirements, RCRA could be amended or the EPA or state environmental agencies could adopt policies to require those waste products to become subject to more stringent waste handling requirements. Any changes in the laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our operators’ capital expenditures and operating expenses, which in turn could affect production from our properties and adversely affect our business and prospects.

Remediation of Hazardous Substances

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”), also known as the “Superfund” law, and analogous state laws generally impose strict, joint, and several liability, without regard to fault or legality of the original conduct, for the release of a “hazardous substance” into the environment. Parties subject to liability include the current owner or operator of a contaminated facility (which can include working interest