The Department of Interior has no overarching guidance or policy to assist bureaus in complying with EPA’s regulations concerning certain injection wells, the department’s inspector general has said.
According to the EPA, these kinds of wells – Class V – are mostly shallow and unsophisticated (leech fields are an example) but can be more complex such as those used for pilot geologic sequestration projects.
The lack of guidance has led to a patchwork of inconsistent or nonexistent policies at the bureau level, and bureaus have not effectively tracked and managed their Class V wells, according to the IG.
It said that as a result bureaus are not complying with EPA’s regulations to self-report these wells, and in some cases, it found that well types banned from operation in 2005 were still operational on departmental lands.