Oil and gas: groundwater monitoring.

Existing law requires the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities attendant to oil and gas production. Existing law authorizes the supervisor to require a well operator to implement a monitoring program, designed to detect releases to the soil and water, for aboveground oil production tanks and facilities. The federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulates certain wells as Class II wells. Under existing federal law, the authority to regulate Class II wells in California is delegated to the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources. Under existing regulations, a well operator is required to obtain approval from the supervisor or a district deputy for a subsurface injection or disposal project, including Class II wells, or any change in a project, as provided. This bill would require the division to provide an opportunity and the information necessary for the State Water Resources Control Board and the appropriate regional water quality control board to review, comment on, and propose additional requirements for Class II underground injection well projects. The bill would require the state board or the appropriate regional water quality control board to review, comment on, and propose additional requirements it deems necessary for those projects to ensure that the injection of fluids will not affect the quality of water that is, or may reasonably be, used for any beneficial use. The bill would prohibit the division from approving those projects without written concurrence from the state board or the appropriate regional water quality control board and would require the written concurrence to describe the rationale for the concurrence and explanation as to why additional requirements were or were not required for those projects.