MEMORANDUM

TO: Record

FROM: Lisa Biddle, U.S. EPA, Office of Water (OW)

DATE: March 27, 2015

SUBJECT: Summary of EPA-State Pilot on Improving Regulatory 

Implementation (DCN SGE00762)

EPA is proposing pretreatment standards for discharges from onshore 

unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction facilities to municipal wastewater treatment 

plants (also referred to as publicly owned treatment works or POTWs). The proposed rule 

would add pretreatment standards to the onshore subcategory of the Oil and Gas 

Extraction Point Source Category (40 CFR part 435). Since announcing initiation of this 

effluent limitations guidelines and standards (ELGs) rulemaking activity, EPA has 

actively reached out to interested stakeholders to solicit input from well operators, 

industry trade associations, interested regulatory authorities, technology vendors, and 

environmental groups. Stakeholder involvement in the regulatory development process is 

essential to the success of this effort. 

As part of stakeholder engagement efforts for this ELG, EPA initiated an EPAState Implementation Pilot workgroup with the goal of improving regulatory 

implementation. EPA participants included staff developing the pretreatment standards 

and staff from the Office of Policy. The Environmental Council of States (ECOS), and 

the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA) identified the state 

representatives and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) also added 

a state representative after the workgroup had convened. State participation varied 

between the calls and included representative from various oil and gas producing states 

such as Wyoming, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. 

EPA convened five EPA-State ELG pilot workgroup meetings as follows:

 OW hosted a “kick-off” conference call with state participants to discuss the 

pretreatment standard generally, goals and expectations of EPA and the state 

representatives, etc.

 OW hosted a conference call to provide background on the ELG development 

process: “ELGs 101” 

 OW hosted a conference call to discuss best available and innovative approaches 

to address the discharges from unconventional oil and gas extraction facilities, 

and to solicit information from the states generally.

 OW hosted a conference call to describe its data collection activities, the 

preliminary results of its analyses, and its preliminary thoughts on regulatory 

approaches for the rulemaking. In addition to sharing information, OW wanted to 

hear from the participants on any additional data or information that might 
Memorandum

March 27, 2015

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support or alter its preliminary results. OW also solicited feedback on possible 

regulatory approaches. EPA shared that based on the information collected to 

date, it could not identify any existing discharges from UOG extraction facilities 

to POTWs. Several states were able to confirm that such discharges never existed 

in their states, or in a few cases, had been discontinued (e.g., West Virginia).

 OW hosted a conference call to update the participants on the status of the 

rulemaking and its likely proposed regulatory approach. OW also discussed a 

separate but related activity: the Centralized Waste Treatment (CWT) ELGs

Study. OW described the scope of the study, its data collection process, and 

solicited information about oil and gas CWT facilities in the states, their discharge 

status, and how such facilities are currently regulated.