82 FR 19044 - Proposed Issuance of the NPDES General Permit for Discharges From the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category-Stripper Subcategory in Texas (TXG350000)

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 78 (April 25, 2017)

EPA Region 6 today proposes a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit regulating discharges from oil and gas wells in the Stripper Subcategory which discharge into waters in Texas.

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 78 (Tuesday, April 25, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Page 19044]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-08256]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[FRL-9960-18-Region 6]


Proposed Issuance of the NPDES General Permit for Discharges From 
the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category--Stripper Subcategory 
in Texas (TXG350000)

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Proposal of NPDES General Permit Renewal.

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SUMMARY: EPA Region 6 today proposes a National Pollutant Discharge 
Elimination System (NPDES) general permit regulating discharges from 
oil and gas wells in the Stripper Subcategory which discharge into 
waters in Texas.

DATES: Comments must be received by June 9, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Comment: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. 
EPA-R06-OW-2017-0161 to the Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or withdrawn. EPA 
may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit 
electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business 
Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted 
by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be 
accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered the 
official comment and should include discussion of all points you wish 
to make. EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents 
located outside of the primary submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or 
other file sharing system). For additional submission methods, the full 
EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia 
submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please 
visit https://www.epa.gov/dockets/commenting-epa-dockets.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Evelyn Rosborough, Region 6, U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, 1445 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75202-
2733. Telephone: (214) 665-7515.
    A complete draft permit and a fact sheet more fully explaining the 
proposal may be obtained online from the Federal eRulemaking Portal 
accessing the Docket listed above or from Ms. Rosborough. In addition, 
the Agency's current administrative record on the proposal is available 
for examination at the Region's Dallas offices during normal working 
hours after providing Ms. Rosborough 24 hours advance notice.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The current permit authorizes discharges of 
produced water from wells in the Stripper Subcategory located east of 
the 98th meridian whose produced water comes from the Carrizo/Wilcox, 
Reklaw or Bartosh formations in Texas as authorized by the expiring 
permit. EPA is soliciting comments whether to expand the permit 
coverage to include all stripper wells in Texas. The permit proposes to 
authorize discharges of produced water, well field drainage, and 
chemical-free miscellaneous discharges. More stringent requirements are 
proposed to regulate discharges to water quality-impaired waterbodies. 
Proposed changes include (1) removal of authorization for sanitary 
waste, domestic waste, and miscellaneous discharges which are unrelated 
to stripper well operations; (2) removal of authorization of direct 
discharge to coastal waters; (3) revision of the toxicity monitoring 
requirement and removal of the ion-imbalance exemption; (4) the 
addition of electronic filing requirements for Notices of Intent 
(NOIs); and (5) the addition of a ``sufficiently sensitive method'' 
requirement for analysis. Rationales for those changes are described in 
the Fact Sheet. To obtain discharge authorization, operators of such 
facilities must submit a new NOI. To determine whether your facility, 
company, business, organization, etc. is regulated by this action, you 
should carefully examine the applicability criteria in Part I, Section 
A.1 of this permit. If you have questions regarding the applicability 
of this action to a particular entity, consult the person listed in the 
preceding FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section.

Other Legal Requirements

    State certification under section 401 of the CWA; compliance with 
Endangered Species Act, Historic Preservation Act, Paperwork Reduction 
Act, and Regulatory Flexibility Act requirements are discussed in the 
fact sheet to the proposed permit.

    Dated: March 2, 2017.
William K. Honker,
Director, Water Division, EPA Region 6.
[FR Doc. 2017-08256 Filed 4-24-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6560-50-P