EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Study Improvement Act

EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Study Improvement Act - Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conducting the study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources, with respect to which a request for information was issued in November 2012, to:

• prior to issuance and dissemination of any final or interim report summarizing EPA research on such relationship, consider such reports to be Highly Influential Scientific Assessments requiring peer review in accordance with specified EPA and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policy documents;
• require the reports to meet the standards and procedures for the dissemination of influential scientific, financial, or statistical information set forth in the EPA's Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the Environmental Protection Agency, developed in response to guidelines issued by OMB under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001; and
• ensure that identification of the possible impacts included in such reports be accompanied by objective estimates of the probability, uncertainty, and consequence of each identified impact, taking into account the risk management practices of states and industry, and that estimates or descriptions of probability, uncertainty, and consequence are as quantitative as possible given the validity, accuracy, precision, and other quality attributes of the underlying data and analyses, but no more quantitative than the data and analyses can support.

Requires public release of the final report by September 30, 2016.

[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2850 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2850

   To require certain procedures in the conduct by the Environmental 
 Protection Agency of its study of the potential impacts of hydraulic 
                fracturing on drinking water resources.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 30, 2013

    Mr. Smith of Texas (for himself, Mr. Stewart, and Mrs. Lummis) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                     Science, Space, and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require certain procedures in the conduct by the Environmental 
 Protection Agency of its study of the potential impacts of hydraulic 
                fracturing on drinking water resources.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Study 
Improvement Act''.

SEC. 2. EPA HYDRAULIC FRACTURING RESEARCH.

    In conducting its study of the potential impacts of hydraulic 
fracturing on drinking water resources, with respect to which a request 
for information was issued under Federal Register Vol. 77, No. 218, the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall adhere to 
the following requirements:
            (1) Peer review and information quality.--Prior to issuance 
        and dissemination of any final report or any interim report 
        summarizing the Environmental Protection Agency's research on 
        the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking 
        water, the Administrator shall--
                    (A) consider such reports to be Highly Influential 
                Scientific Assessments and require peer review of such 
                reports in accordance with guidelines governing such 
                assessments, as described in--
                            (i) the Environmental Protection Agency's 
                        Peer Review Handbook 3rd Edition;
                            (ii) the Environmental Protection Agency's 
                        Scientific Integrity Policy, as in effect on 
                        the date of enactment of this Act; and
                            (iii) the Office of Management and Budget's 
                        Peer Review Bulletin, as in effect on the date 
                        of enactment of this Act; and
                    (B) require such reports to meet the standards and 
                procedures for the dissemination of influential 
                scientific, financial, or statistical information set 
                forth in the Environmental Protection Agency's 
                Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, 
                Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information 
                Disseminated by the Environmental Protection Agency, 
                developed in response to guidelines issued by the 
                Office of Management and Budget under section 515(a) of 
                the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act 
                for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-554).
            (2) Probability, uncertainty, and consequence.--In order to 
        maximize the quality and utility of information developed 
        through the study, the Administrator shall ensure that 
        identification of the possible impacts of hydraulic fracturing 
        on drinking water resources included in such reports be 
        accompanied by objective estimates of the probability, 
        uncertainty, and consequence of each identified impact, taking 
        into account the risk management practices of States and 
        industry. Estimates or descriptions of probability, 
        uncertainty, and consequence shall be as quantitative as 
        possible given the validity, accuracy, precision, and other 
        quality attributes of the underlying data and analyses, but no 
        more quantitative than the data and analyses can support.
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