00                      SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 14                                                                    
01 Urging Congress not to remove the exemption for hydraulic fracturing from the                                           
02 provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act.                                                                              
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04       WHEREAS the United States Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act (42                                       
05 U.S.C. 300h) to ensure the protection of the nation's drinking water resources; and                                     
06       WHEREAS, after the enactment of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Environmental                                  
07 Protection Agency never interpreted hydraulic fracturing as constituting "underground                                   
08 injection" under the Safe Drinking Water Act; and                                                                       
09       WHEREAS the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held, in                                    
10 Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation v. United States Environmental Protection                                     
11 Agency, 118 F.3d 1467 (11th Cir. 1997), that hydraulic fracturing constituted "underground                              
12 injection" under the Safe Drinking Water Act; and                                                                       
13       WHEREAS, in 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency published a final report                                  
14 that summarized a study evaluating the potential threat to underground sources of drinking                              
15 water from hydraulic fracturing of coalbed methane production wells that concluded that                                 
16 "additional or further study is not warranted at this time" and that "the injection of hydraulic                        

01 fracturing fluids into [coal bed methane] wells poses minimal threat to [underground sources                            
02 of drinking water]"; and                                                                                                
03       WHEREAS the United States Congress, in the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005,                                   
04 explicitly exempted hydraulic fracturing from the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act;                            
05 and                                                                                                                     
06       WHEREAS the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission conducted a survey of                                     
07 oil and gas producing states that found no known cases of groundwater contamination                                     
08 associated with hydraulic fracturing; and                                                                               
09       WHEREAS hydraulic fracturing is now, and has been for decades, a common method                                  
10 used by the oil and gas industry in all of the member states of the Interstate Oil and Gas                              
11 Compact Commission in exploration and production activities, without causing groundwater                                
12 damage; and                                                                                                             
13       WHEREAS, each year, approximately 35,000 wells are hydraulically fractured in the                           
14 United States and, since the technique's inception, close to 1,000,000 wells have been                                  
15 hydraulically fractured in the United States, with no known harm to groundwater; and                                    
16       WHEREAS the regulation of oil and gas exploration and production activities,                                    
17 including hydraulic fracturing, has traditionally been the province of the states; and                                  
18       WHEREAS the Safe Drinking Water Act was never intended to grant to the federal                                  
19 government authority to regulate oil and gas drilling and production operations such as                                 
20 hydraulic fracturing under the Underground Injection Control program; and                                               
21       WHEREAS the member states of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission                                      
22 have adopted comprehensive laws and regulations to protect the nation's drinking water                                  
23 resources and have trained personnel to effectively regulate oil and gas exploration and                                
24 production; and                                                                                                         
25       WHEREAS production of coal seam natural gas, natural gas from shale formations,                                 
26 and natural gas from tight conventional reservoirs is increasingly important to the domestic                            
27 natural gas supply and will be even more important in the future; and                                                   
28       WHEREAS regulation of hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Drinking Water Act on                                 
29 Alaska's North Slope or in Cook Inlet is unwarranted because these areas do not serve as                                
30 sources of underground potable water; and                                                                               
31       WHEREAS hydraulic fracturing plays a major role in the development of oil and gas                               

01 resources and, thus, in the absence of evidence that such fracturing has damaged the                                    
02 environment, should not be limited; and                                                                                 
03       WHEREAS regulation of hydraulic fracturing as a category of underground injection                               
04 under the Safe Drinking Water Act will impose significant administrative costs on the state                             
05 and substantially increase the cost of drilling oil and gas wells, with no resulting                                    
06 environmental benefits; and                                                                                             
07       WHEREAS regulation of hydraulic fracturing as a category of underground injection                               
08 under the Safe Drinking Water Act will increase energy costs to the consumer;                                           
09       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature hereby declares its support for                                
10 maintaining the exemption of hydraulic fracturing from the provisions of the Safe Drinking                              
11 Water Act and urges the United States Congress not to pass legislation that will remove the                             
12 exemption for hydraulic fracturing.                                                                                     
13       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of                             
14 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and                          
15 President of the U.S. Senate; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark                                   
16 Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the                                 
17 Alaska delegation in Congress.