1. Butte County Board of Supervisors April 21, 2015
PROPOSED ORDINANCE TO BAN STORAGE AND DISPOSAL OF HYDRAULIC FRACTURING BYPRODUCTS Zoning Code Amendment ZCA
Butte County Board of Supervisors
April 21, 2015

2. Background
At the Board meeting of February 10, 2015, your Board directed staff to:
Prepare an ordinance banning Fracking waste from being imported and disposed of in Butte County injection wells (aka Option B Ordinance created for PC), and
To return, after State Regulations become effective, with clarifying language to Chapter 24 that Fracking requires a Conditional Use Permit.
Fracking has been on County’ agenda since January At the last meeting before the BOS, staff was directed to return with ordinance to Ban storage and disposal of fracking byproducts.

3. Ordinance to Ban Storage and Disposal of Fracking Byproducts – Changes to Zoning Ordinance
Adds “Oil and Gas Extraction, Storage or Disposal of Well Stimulation Byproducts” land use category in all zones and then does not allow the land use category in all zones
Specifies “no well stimulation byproducts of any form or of any nature may be stored in, or disposed of in, the boundaries of Butte County, including any injection wells…”
Adds definitions

4. ‘Acidizing’ Defined
“Any well stimulation treatment that uses, in whole or in part, the application of one or more acids, at any pressure, to an underground geologic formation with the intent to cause or enhance the production of oil, gas, or other hydrocarbon substances from a well. Acidizing may include, but is not limited to, processes known as acid fracturing and acid matrix stimulation. Acidizing does not include routine well cleanout work, routine well maintenance, routine activities that do not affect the integrity of a well or an underground geologic formation, or treatments that do not penetrate into an underground geologic formation more than 36 inches from the wellbore.”

5. ‘Hydraulic Fracturing’ Defined
“Any well stimulation treatment that, in whole or in part, includes the pressurized injection of hydraulic fracturing fluid or fluids, which may include a mixture of water, sand, or chemicals into an underground geologic formation in order to fracture, or with the intent to fracture, the formation, thereby causing or enhancing the production of oil, gas, the other hydrocarbon substances from a well.”

6. ‘Injection Well’ Defined
“Any new or existing well used for the underground storage or disposal of fluid or fluids, wastewater, or wastewater solids.”

7. ‘Well Stimulation Byproducts’ Defined
“Any fluid or fluids, wastewater, or wastewater solids resulting from well stimulation treatments.”

8. ‘Well Stimulation Treatment’ Defined
Well Stimulation Treatment. Any treatment of a well designed to enhance oil, gas or other hydrocarbon substance production or recovery by increasing the permeability of an underground geologic formation. Well stimulation treatments include, but are not limited to, hydraulic fracturing and acidizing. Well stimulation treatments do not include routine well cleanout work, routine well maintenance, routine activities that do not affect the integrity of a well or an underground geologic formation, or treatments that do not penetrate into an underground geologic formation more than 36 inches from the wellbore.

9. Summary of Findings
Based on available evidence, storage or disposal of hydraulic fracturing byproducts may cause environmental harm to land, air, and water resources.
SB4 regulations not yet in effect
Not compatible with existing County land uses
Not consistent with Butte General Plan
Butte County’s residents, and its vast water and agricultural resources, are too important to expose to potential contamination

10. Recommendation:
Staff recommends that the Board of Supervisors
Adopt the Resolution Finding the Ordinance exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); and
Adopt the Ordinance Prohibiting the Storage or Disposal of Hydraulic Fracturing Byproducts

11. Recommended Actions:
Adopt the Resolution making findings relative to the Ordinance and finding the Ordinance Categorically Exempt from environmental review pursuant to CEQA and authorize the chair to sign.
Adopt the Ordinance amending Chapter 24, entitled “Zoning” of the Butte County Code to prohibit the storage or disposal of well stimulation (“fracking”) byproducts, and authorize the chair to sign.