{"id":30938,"date":"2018-11-15T11:41:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T17:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=30938"},"modified":"2018-11-15T11:41:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T17:41:51","slug":"oklahoma-supreme-court-sides-with-industry-in-fight-over-oil-field-water-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/11\/15\/oklahoma-supreme-court-sides-with-industry-in-fight-over-oil-field-water-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma Supreme Court sides with industry in fight over oil-field water regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Energy companies use portable pumps, like this one alongside a road in Kingfisher County, to transport fresh and produced water to and from oil-field sites through temporary pipelines.<\/p>\n<\/div>

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with the energy industry, ruling against officials in Kingfisher County who blocked companies from using temporary lines to transport produced, treated or recycled water in one of the state\u2019s hottest oil fields.<\/p>

Last spring, Kingfisher County Commissioners stopped issuing permits for temporary pipes placed in easements alongside county roads to pump water to and from drilling and oil-field sites, citing liability concerns and environmental hazards posed by leaks.<\/p>

Oil companies said the ban was expensive and unnecessary and could worsen truck traffic and force drillers to use fresh water instead of recycled oil-field water for hydraulic fracturing.<\/p>

The Oklahoma Oil and Gas Association filed a lawsuit<\/a> in August, arguing the ban was unreasonable and challenged the commissioners\u2019 authority to regulate the water lines.<\/p>

The chief legal counsel for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the state\u2019s oil and gas regulator, agreed with that argument<\/a> in a legal opinion and cited a 2015 law<\/a> that crimped local governments\u2019 ability to prohibit oil-field operations.<\/p>

Oklahoma\u2019s high court agreed. In a 6-3 ruling and order<\/a>, justices voided Kingfisher County\u2019s water line ban and said the Corporation Commission has \u201cexclusive authority\u201d to regulate the transportation and storage of oil-field water.<\/p>

The oil and gas association \u2014 which recently merged with the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association \u2014 said the decision was an important clarification for oil and gas companies that would help ensure \u201cmuch-needed certainty and uniformity\u201d across the state.<\/p>

\u201cA patchwork of local ordinances and regulations creates unnecessary confusion, thwarts innovative solutions, and threatens environmental protections and public health,\u201d OIPA-OKOGA spokesperson Cody Bannister said in a statement. \u201cUsing temporary water lines is an industry-standard practice that has numerous environmental benefits, including reducing truck traffic and supporting water recycling efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a 6-3 ruling, the state’s highest court agreed the state has “exclusive authority” over produced water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":30937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"page-noFeature.php","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490,491],"tags":[390,238],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30940,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30938\/revisions\/30940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}