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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Discharging muds offshore

Journal Article · · Drilling-DCW; (United States)
OSTI ID:5991004
This article explains that the EPA is the key player in the regulation of drilling mud disposal offshore. They are granted this authority by the Clean Water Act and exercise the authority by requiring rig operators to have permits to discharge drilling muds. They call these NPDES permits (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System). Initially, every well drilled required an individual permit before drilling muds could be discharged from drilling rigs. To cut down on the red tape of individual permitting, the EPA devised a generic or general discharge permit which simply means any operator can claim coverage under the permit if its guidelines are followed. The reason all these changes have occurred is the EPA has changed the requirements of its general discharge permit. The first general permit was issued in April 1981 and only prohibited dumping of oil-base drilling fluids and halogenated phenols.
OSTI ID:
5991004
Journal Information:
Drilling-DCW; (United States), Journal Name: Drilling-DCW; (United States) Vol. 47:10; ISSN DRDCD
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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