To: Governor Gavin Newsom
Stop the Illegal Injection of Oil Industry Wastewater into California Aquifers
California's Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) recently admitted that the oil and gas industry has been illegally dumping wastewater into protected aquifers from over 2,500 injection wells.
As a California citizen, I am urging you to put an immediate stop to this ongoing contamination and shut down all illegal injection wells.
These wells are in direct violation of federal and state law, yet DOGGR has only shut down 23 of the wells. All should be stopped immediately until further review.
In the midst of a massive drought, we should not be catering to the oil and gas industry at the expense of our dwindling fresh water supplies.
Please protect these aquifers from further contamination immediately. We can't afford to pollute and waste any more of our most precious resource: water.
Thank you for taking immediate action.
Why is this important?
We’re facing a clean water emergency in California.
Regulators recently admitted that for years the oil industry has been illegally dumping millions of gallons of wastewater, including waste from fracking, into our state’s protected aquifers.
Yet—in an outrageous move—the state is allowing the contamination to continue.
Join thousands of other Californians who are telling Governor Brown to put an immediate stop to this illegal water pollution.
The oil and gas industry has been injecting wastewater and other fluids into protected aquifers through about 2,500 injection wells, in direct violation of federal and state law.
Yet despite acknowledging the threat to our water supplies, the state has shut down only 23 of the wells. And now, in order to avoid “inconvenience” to the industry, the state is giving drillers up to nearly two more years to contaminate aquifers that could be used for drinking water.
Earthjustice is challenging this outrageous action in state court, but we need your help to put additional pressure on the governor.
Tell Governor Brown to put the public first and protect our aquifers from further contamination now.
In the midst of a massive drought, we should not be catering to the oil industry at the expense of our dwindling fresh water supplies.