To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to regulate hydraulic fracturing operations on Federal lands, and for other purposes.

Bill: 115-hr-7211
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Soto, Darren [D-FL-9]
Introduced: 2018-11-30
Policy area: Environmental Protection
Subjects: Government information and archives

Hazardous wastes and toxic substances

Land use and conservation

Licensing and registrations

Oil and gas

Water quality
Latest action: action_date: 2018-12-13
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

Summaries:
action_date: 2018-11-30
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p>This bill addresses requirements concerning hydraulic fracturing 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. </p> <p>Specifically, this bill subjects the underground injection of such fluids or propping agents to requirements governing drinking water.</p> <p> In addition, the bill: (1) requires the Bureau of Land Management to regulate hydraulic fracturing operations on federal land administered by the Department of the Interior, and (2) establishes permit requirements for such operations.</p>

tv_txt: I 115th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 7211 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES November 30, 2018 Mr. Soto introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources , and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce , for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to regulate hydraulic fracturing operations on Federal lands, and for other purposes.

1. Authority of BLM to regulate hydraulic fracturing operations (a) Authority of BLM To regulate hydraulic fracturing operations The Mineral Leasing Act ( 30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.) is amended— (1) by redesignating section 44 as section 45; and (2) by adding after section 43 the following: 44. Hydraulic fracturing operations (a) Regulatory authority The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, shall regulate hydraulic fracturing operations on Federal lands under the administration of such Secretary with respect to the purposes of this Act. (b) Requirements on operators The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, shall require as a condition of receiving a permit or other authorization under this section an operator to— (1) conduct baseline water testing; and (2) disclose to the public on an Internet website the chemicals used by such operator to conduct hydraulic fracturing operations. (c) Definition of hydraulic fracturing operations The term hydraulic fracturing operations — (1) means those operations conducted in an individual wellbore designed to increase the flow of hydrocarbons from the rock formation to the wellbore through modifying the permeability of reservoir rock by applying fluids under pressure to fracture it; and (2) does not include enhanced secondary recovery such as water flooding, tertiary recovery, recovery through steam injection, or other types of well stimulation operations such as acidizing. . (b) Definition of underground injection Section 1421 of the Safe Drinking Water Act ( 42 U.S.C. 300h ) is amended— (1) by amending subsection (d)(1)(B) to read as follows: (B) excludes the underground injection of natural gas for purposes of storage. .