Managing Oil & Gas
Pits and Impoundments
Adam Peltz, Attorney
December 17, 2015
“I'll take an oil spill nine times
out of 10 over a production
water spill. You have long-term
impacts that are really difficult to
remediate.”
David Glatt
North Dakota Environmental Health Section Chief
A Case for Waste Management Now
•
Scale: over 800 billion gallons of
wastewater generated per year
•
With more reuse and recycling of
produced water:
• Changing storage practices
• Wastewater stored at larger
facilities, for longer durations,
at more locations
•
More data and better rules and
practices needed to reduce
frequency, severity of wastewater
storage leaks and spills
Vegetation killed as a result of
oil and gas wastewater spill
Attributes for Pits and Impoundments
• Siting considerations
(100-year flood plain boundary,
proximity to drinking water sources,
separation from groundwater,
surrounding land use)
• Design, construction, and
operation requirements
(liners, leak detection, freeboard, fluid
level monitoring, spill prevention,
operator inspection and maintenance)
• Closure requirements
(timing, disposition of fluids and solids,
and site restoration)