The Environmental Protection Agency has moved to clarify which oil and gas production wastes are exempt from regulation under the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
It exempted general production wastes in July 1988. Now, it has clarified the status of wastes from crude oil production, service companies, oil pipelines, gas processing plants, and feeder pipelines.
EPA said a simple rule of thumb to determine whether wastes are exempt is whether the waste has come from downhole or has been generated by contact with the oil and gas production stream during removal of produced water or other contaminants from the product.
"If the answer to either question is yes, the waste is most likely considered exempt," it said.
SOME EXAMPLES
In crude oil production, exempt wastes include those from the treatment of exempt wastes originally generated by exploration and production. The off-site transport of exempt waste from a primary field site for treatment, reclamation, or disposal does not negate the exemption.
Some solid and liquid wastes from production are not exempt, such as waste solvents from the cleaning of tank trucks that are used to transport oil field tank bottoms because the use of cleaning solvents is not uniquely associated with the production of crude oil.
It said a common belief in the oil industry is that any wastes generated by, in support of, or intended for use by the oil and gas exploration and production industry, including most service company wastes, are exempt.
"This is not the case. Only wastes generated by activities uniquely associated with the exploration, development, or production of oil or gas at primary field operations-that is, wastes from downhole or wastes that have otherwise been generated by contact with the production stream-are exempt.
"Oil and gas service company wastes such as empty drums, drum rinsate, vacuum truck rinsate, sandblast media, painting wastes, spent solvents, spilled chemicals, and waste acids are not exempt from RCRA regulation."
But that does not mean a service company cannot generate exempted wastes.
"For example, if a service company generates spent acid returns from a well workover, the waste is exempt since the waste acid in this case came from downhole and was part of primary field operations."
Vacuum truck and drum rinsate from trucks and drums transporting or containing exempt wastes is exempt, provided that the trucks or drums contain only E&P related exempt wastes and that the water or fluid used in the rinsing is not subject to RCRA jurisdiction.
In the case of oil pipelines, only wastes generated before the end point of primary field operations are exempt. That end point is the point of custody transfer of the oil or, in the absence of a custody transfer, the point of initial separation of water from oil.
Transportation wastes specifically not exempt are pipeline pigging wastes or water and soil contaminated by pipeline spills.
NATURAL GAS
For natural gas, wastes occurring before the transport of gas from the gas processing plant are exempt, even though ownership of the gas may have changed hands between the wellhead and plant because removal of impurities is part of the production process.
Therefore, gas processing plant wastes such as produced water and sulfur are exempt while wastes not associated with the gas production stream, such as pump lube oil and waste mercury from meters, are not.
EPA said any wastes downstream of the gas plant are not exempt with the exception that wastes uniquely associated with operations to recover gas from underground storage are exempt just as if the gas were being produced for the first time."
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