Title: Safe Hydration is an American Right in Energy Development Act of 2019
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
Safe Hydration is an American Right in Energy Development Act of 2019
This bill requires hydraulic fracturing operations to test for and report on underground sources of drinking water that are contaminated by such operations. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process to extract underground resources such as oil or gas from a geologic formation by injecting water, a propping agent (e.g., sand), and chemical additives into a well under enough pressure to fracture the geological formation.
Specifically, this bill revises requirements governing state underground injection control programs. In order to obtain primary enforcement responsibility for such programs, states must prohibit the underground injection of fluids or propping agents pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities unless the hydraulic fracturing operations agree to test for and report on contamination of drinking water.
Hydraulic fracturing operations are exempted from those testing and reporting requirements if there is no accessible underground source of drinking water within a radius of one mile of the site where the operations occur.
The Environmental Protection Agency must establish and maintain a publicly accessible and searchable database of the testing results.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3604 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3604

To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to require testing of underground 
   sources of drinking water in connection with hydraulic fracturing 
                  operations, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 28, 2019

Ms. Schakowsky (for herself, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Sarbanes, Ms. Norton, Mr. 
  Neguse, Mrs. Napolitano, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Beyer, Ms. Clarke of New 
  York, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Khanna, Ms. 
 DeGette, Mr. Moulton, and Mr. Huffman) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to require testing of underground 
   sources of drinking water in connection with hydraulic fracturing 
                  operations, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Safe Hydration is an American Right 
in Energy Development Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. TESTING OF UNDERGROUND DRINKING WATER SOURCES IN CONNECTION 
              WITH HYDRAULIC FRACTURING OPERATIONS.

    (a) In General.--Section 1421(b)(1) of the Safe Drinking Water Act 
(42 U.S.C. 300h(b)(1)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (C), by striking ``and'' at the end;
            (2) in subparagraph (D), by striking the period at the end 
        and inserting ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(E) shall prohibit the underground injection of fluids or 
        propping agents pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations 
        related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities unless 
        the person proposing to conduct the hydraulic fracturing 
        operations agrees to conduct testing and report data in 
        accordance with section 1421A.''.
    (b) Testing and Reporting Requirements.--Part C of the Safe 
Drinking Water Act is amended by inserting after section 1421 of such 
Act (42 U.S.C. 300h) the following:

``SEC. 1421A. TESTING OF UNDERGROUND DRINKING WATER SOURCES IN 
              CONNECTION WITH HYDRAULIC FRACTURING OPERATIONS.

    ``(a) Requirements.--Regulations under section 1421(a) for State 
underground injection control programs shall, in connection with the 
underground injection of fluids or propping agents pursuant to 
hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal 
production activities, require any person conducting such operations--
            ``(1) to conduct testing of underground sources of drinking 
        water in accordance with subsections (c) and (d)--
                    ``(A) with respect to a site where, as of the date 
                of enactment of this section, underground injection has 
                not commenced for the first time--
                            ``(i) prior to commencement of underground 
                        injection at the site for the first time;
                            ``(ii) at least once every 6 months during 
                        the period beginning at the commencement of 
                        underground injection described in clause (i) 
                        and ending at the cessation of such hydraulic 
                        fracturing operations; and
                            ``(iii) at least once every 12 months 
                        during the 5-year period following the end of 
                        the period described in clause (ii);
                    ``(B) with respect to a site where, as of the date 
                of enactment of this section, there is no active 
                underground injection, but underground injection has 
                previously occurred at the site--
                            ``(i) prior to renewing underground 
                        injection at the site;
                            ``(ii) at least once every 6 months during 
                        the period beginning at such renewal of 
                        underground injection and ending at the 
                        cessation of such hydraulic fracturing 
                        operations; and
                            ``(iii) at least once every 12 months 
                        during the 5-year period following the end of 
                        the period described in clause (ii); and
                    ``(C) with respect to a site where, as of the date 
                of enactment of this section, such hydraulic fracturing 
                operations are occurring--
                            ``(i) at least once every 6 months during 
                        the period beginning on the date of enactment 
                        of this section ending at the cessation of such 
                        hydraulic fracturing operations; and
                            ``(ii) at least once every 12 months during 
                        the 5-year period following the end of the 
                        period described in clause (i); and
            ``(2) to submit reports to the Administrator on the results 
        of testing under subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1) 
        within 2 weeks of such testing.
    ``(b) Exception.--The testing and reporting requirements of 
subsection (a) do not apply with respect to hydraulic fracturing 
operations if there is no accessible underground source of drinking 
water within a radius of one mile of the site where the operations 
occur.
    ``(c) Sampling Locations.--Testing required pursuant to subsection 
(a) shall occur--
            ``(1) at all accessible underground sources of drinking 
        water within a radius of one-half mile of the site where the 
        hydraulic fracturing operations occur; and
            ``(2) if there is no accessible underground source of 
        drinking water within such radius, at the nearest accessible 
        underground source of drinking water within a radius of one 
        mile of such site.
    ``(d) Testing.--Testing required pursuant to subsection (a) shall--
            ``(1) be conducted by one or more laboratories certified 
        pursuant to the Environmental Protection Agency's program for 
        certifying laboratories for analysis of drinking water 
        contaminants; and
            ``(2) include testing for any hazardous substance, 
        pollutant, contaminant, or other factor that the Administrator 
        determines would indicate damage associated with hydraulic 
        fracturing operations.
    ``(e) Database; Public Accessibility.--
            ``(1) Database.--The Administrator shall establish and 
        maintain a database of the results reported pursuant to 
        subsection (a)(2).
            ``(2) Public accessibility.--The Administrator shall make 
        such database publicly accessible on the website of the 
        Environmental Protection Agency.
            ``(3) Public searchability.--The Administrator shall make 
        such database searchable by ZIP Code, allowing members of the 
        public to easily identify all sites for which reports are 
        submitted pursuant to subsection (a)(2).
    ``(f) Definition.--In this section, the term `accessible 
underground source of drinking water' means an underground source of 
drinking water to which the person conducting the hydraulic fracturing 
operations can reasonably gain access.''.
    (c) Conforming Amendment.--Section 1421(d)(1)(B)(ii) of the Safe 
Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h(d)(1)(B)(ii)) is amended by 
inserting ``except as provided in subsection (b)(1)(E) of this section 
and section 1421A,'' before ``the underground injection of fluids or 
propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic 
fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production 
activities''.
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