What agencies and regulations govern the routine discharge of wastes produced by offshore oil and gas exploration and production activities?
Routine discharges of wastes are subject to regulation by the EPA under Section 402(a) of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The EPA, a regulatory agency, is authorized by Congress to implement pollution control programs and to write and enforce regulations necessary to implement environmental laws, such as the CWA. The EPA establishes effluent limitation guidelines through a rigorous process to evaluate potential impacts, solicit public review and comment, and set restrictions on the volume and composition of discharges to comply with applicable water quality standards, which are then incorporated into the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting process. In 1993, the EPA established guidelines for the discharge of offshore drilling and operational wastes. NPDES permits contain effluent limitations (developed pursuant to a number of sections of the CWA including 301, 302, 306, 307, and 403) and operating conditions which depend on the permit region. Operators must ap
