Water Quality in Areas of Oil and Gas Production - Documents and Links

• Area-Specific Process Flow Chart
• Requests for Exclusion from Groundwater Monitoring Process Flow Chart
• Process Flowchart for Reviewing Well Stimulation Permit Applications

• Model Criteria for Groundwater Monitoring in Areas of Oil and Gas Well Stimulation (Adopted July 7, 2015)

Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory

• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Executive Summary: Recommendations on Model Criteria for Groundwater Sampling, Testing, and Monitoring of Oil and Gas Development in California
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Recommendations on Model Criteria for Groundwater Sampling, Testing, and Monitoring of Oil and Gas Development in California

California Council on Science and Technology

• California Council on Science and Technology - An Independent Scientific Assessment of Well Stimulation, Executive Summary
• California Council on Science and Technology - An Independent Scientific Assessment of Well Stimulation Volume I
• California Council on Science and Technology - An Independent Scientific Assessment of Well Stimulation Volume II
• California Council on Science and Technology - An Independent Scientific Assessment of Well Stimulation Volume III
• State Agency Activities Associated with Recommendations from the California Council on Science and Technology on Well Stimulation in Oil Production (October 16, 2017)

• 1982 MOA between DOGGR and USEPA
• 1988 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between DOGGR and the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board)
• 2015 Senate Bill 4 MOA between DOGGR and State Water Resources Control Board.
• Revised Memorandum of Agreement Between State Water Resources Control Board and Department of Conservation Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources Regarding Underground Injection Control, Discharges to Land, and Other Program Issues (July 31, 2018)

• US EPA Aquifer Exemption Checklist
• Initial Letter to US EPA including List of Injection Wells (2014)
• May 2015 State Response Letter to US EPA
• Joint letter to US EPA from DOGGR and State Water Board on February 6, 2015
• US EPA letter to DOGGR and State Water Board on March 9, 2015
• Guidance for Review and Approval of State Underground Injection Control (UIC) Programs and Revisions to Approved State Programs
• Ground Water Protection Council Produced Water Report: Regulations, Current Practices, and Research Needs (2019)

• California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) oversees the drilling, operation, maintenance, and plugging and abandonment of oil, natural gas, and geothermal wells in California. The CalGEM web page contains resources and announcements of recent CalGEM activities.
• Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) provides information about hydraulic fracturing and its environmental impacts on the USEPA web page: Unconventional Oil and Gas Development. In addition, the EPA is currently studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources. While the draft report is expected in 2014, a progress report outlining initial findings was released in December 2012. The Study of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources - Progress Report conducted by the EPA is complete.
• United States Geological Survey (USGS) provides information about the process of hydraulic fracturing and impacts of the use of hydraulic fracturing through the Science Explorer: Exploring Hydraulic Fracturing web page.
• FracFocus is a national hydraulic fracturing registry that is primarily concerned with groundwater protection. The FracFocus webpage also provides information on hydraulic fracking regulations in all 50 states.

• Department of Conservation report on The Effects of Oilfield Operations on Underground Sources of Drinking Water in Kern County
• USGS reports on Geology of the Fresh Ground-Water Basin of the Central Valley, California, with Texture Maps and Sections and Geologic Features and Ground-Water Storage Capacity of the Sacramento Valley California, respectively.
• Maps Depicting the Base of Fresh Water produced by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Southern San Joaquin Valley and for the Sacramento Valley.
• Pursuant to Senate Bill 4 (Pavley 2013), the California Natural Resources Agency commissioned the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) conducted an independent scientific assessment of well stimulation treatments, including hydraulic fracturing, in California.
• Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board information on Oil Field issues
• Maximum Contaminant Level in drinking water threshold information can be found on the USEPA Drinking Water Requirements for States and Public water Systems: Drinking Water Regulations webpage.