Nonprofit environmental law group Earthjustice filed a lawsuit yesterday on behalf of clients including the Sierra Club against the California state agency that oversees oil and gas well activity in the state.
The suit alleges that Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) didn't properly evaluate risks related to hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, despite the use of the practice in hundreds of California wells in 2011. Fracking has been used in California since the 1950s, according to the lawsuit.
"Right now, the people of California don't know where or when the drillers are fracking, what chemicals they are using, what pollutants they're releasing into the air and water, and what other risks they are taking," Earthjustice attorney George Torgun said in a statement.
The Earthjustice suit requests the court to suspend approving new wells where hydraulic fracturing may occur until a standard of evaluating fracking's impact is instituted.
