American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015 - 39

troduced by Senator Bobby Zirkin, DBaltimore County, would change legal
liabilities associated with fracturing.
In addition to its prohibitions, Brochin's
bill would mandate using closed-loop
systems to handle all drilling fluids, cuttings and flowback materials, the state
legislative website says. All spills must
be reported, cleaned up and reported to
MDE within two hours after detection.
Operators would be required to record
the amount of waste generated on site,
how much was treated or recycled on
site, and how much was transported off
site. The bill also mandates transport vehicles be equipped with GPS systems.
SB 29 requires operators recycle flowback
and produced water to the maximum
extent possible, recommending a 90 percent mark. The proposed regulations also
set out fracture chemical disclosure requirements and MDE notification before
and after drilling. Any claims of trade
secrecy must include a contact person

who is available 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, to provide information to
authorized individuals.
Zirkin's SB 458, the Hydraulic Fracturing Liability Act, defines fracturing
as an ultrahazardous and abnormally dangerous activity, the legislative website
says, and makes information about fracturing chemicals discoverable as evidence,
regardless of any trade secret claims.
The bill would void any contractual
waiver of a right to sue a permittee for liability for damages caused by his fracturing activities, the website says. It
allows for plaintiffs to recover any economic or noneconomic damages that are
proximately caused by fracturing.
It also would increase levels of comprehensive general liability insurance
coverage required for operators from
$300,000 to $1 million a person, and
from $500,000 to $5 million an occurrence.
It raises environmental pollution liability
insurance coverage for bodily injury and

property damage from $1 million to $10
million, and increases the duration of
coverage for environmental pollution insurance after a well has been properly
plugged from five years to six.
In addition to the ultrahazardous definition, SB 458 broadly defines hydraulic
fracturing activity to include well drilling;
exploration or production; and storage,
treatment or transport of any natural gas
produced, chemical components used, or
waste recovered. It defines natural gas as
any hydrocarbon or nonhydrocarbon gas
produced from a natural reservoir, including carbon dioxide, casinghead gas,
helium, hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and
nitrogen.
The legislative website points out the
bill's provisions apply to current oil and
gas permit holders in Maryland, not just
future permit holders, making current
well operators subject to the higher liability
provisions and insurance requirements.
❒

ESA Revisions Push State Involvement
WASHINGTON-State wildlife agencies will have more involvement in federal
decisions to add or remove species on
the Endangered Species Act under revisions proposed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and National Marine Fisheries
Service. The proposal has a public comment period open until July 20.
Under the proposed revisions, the two
agencies say they will ensure that states
are partners in the listing process. USFWS
and NMFS add they are not seeking any
legislative changes to ESA, because they
believe implementation can be improved
significantly by rule making and policy
formulation.
"The proposed policies would result
in a more nimble, transparent and ultimately more effective Endangered Species
Act," says USFWS Director Daniel Ashe.
"By improving and streamlining our
processes, we are ensuring the limited
resources of state and federal agencies
are spent actually protecting and restoring
imperiled species."
According to the Federal Register notice, the proposed rule revisions would
clarify and enhance the procedures by
which the services evaluate petitions
under Section 4(b)(3) of the ESA. As
part of the revision, the notice adds, petitioners must solicit information from any
relevant state wildlife agencies before
submitting their petitions.
The revisions would shape the required
contents of petitions covering ESA listings
as well as those seeking to revise or designate

critical habitat, the notice states, with the
goal to encourage greater communications
and cooperation between petitioners and
state conservation agencies before submitting
the petitions to the federal level.
"Consistent with the intent of the ESA
that listing decisions be based on the
best available science, we appreciate the
service's due recognition of, and requirement to, incorporate the data and information of state fish and wildlife agencies
for formulating listing petitions," says
Larry Voyles, president of the Association
of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
Clarity
The Federal Register notice says the
changes will provide greater clarity to
the public and states regarding what information would inform the evaluation
of a species' status, which the agencies
predict will lead to better coordination
with state wildlife agencies. It notes those
state agencies often have unique information and insights on imperiled species.
The petition process will empower
the public to direct the two services' attention to species that might be imperiled
and not otherwise known to government
agencies, promote changes to a listed
species' threats or other circumstances
that warrant a change in its classification,
or point out necessary revisions to critical
habitat designations, the notice states.
The two agencies say they will unveil
additional proposals over the coming
year, aimed at four broad goals:

* Improving science and transparency
by strengthening procedures to ensure that
all information that can be disclosed publically related to proposed listing and critical
habitat rule notices is posted online;
* Incentivizing voluntary conservation
efforts such as safe harbor and candidate
conservation agreements, improving conditions for listed and at-risk species by
updating guidance for using these tools
to establish consistent standards, and
adopting policies promoting expanded
use of conservation banking and other
advanced mitigation tools;
* Focusing limited resources on activities that will be most impactful, such
as launching an initiative to reduce, stabilize or reverse the rate of decline of
eight vulnerable marine species, and revising interagency consultation procedures
to streamline projects such as habitat
conservation activities; and
* Engaging the states by revising petition regulations to give them opportunities to provide input prior to submission,
and by updating policies regarding the
role of state agencies to reflect advancements in collaboration between the services
and the states.
The proposals add to other actions
already in progress, such as finalizing a
policy on prelisting conservation credits
and on critical habitat exclusions, the
federal agencies say. Efforts to improve
ESA also will include additional reviews
SEE REVISIONS PAGE 109

JUNE 2015 39
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015
