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Safe Hydration is an American Right in Energy Development Act of 2023
2/5/2024, 2:30 PM
Summary of Bill HR 4811
The legislation requires energy companies to conduct regular water quality testing in areas where they are operating to ensure that nearby residents are not being exposed to harmful contaminants. If any water quality issues are identified, the companies are required to take immediate action to address the problem and provide alternative sources of clean water to affected individuals.
Additionally, the bill establishes a fund to support research and development of technologies that can improve water quality monitoring and treatment in energy development areas. This fund will also provide grants to communities to help them implement water quality improvement projects. Overall, the Safe Hydration is an American Right in Energy Development Act of 2023 seeks to prioritize the health and safety of individuals living near energy development sites by ensuring they have access to safe and clean drinking water.
Congressional Summary of HR 4811
Safe Hydration is an American Right in Energy Development Act of 2023
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.
