About the Course
Introduction
This CLE webinar will explore the legal issues surrounding produced water and hydraulic fracturing wastewater. The panel will examine the federal and state requirements governing transportation, storage, treatment, recycling, reuse, underground injection, and discharge, as well as managing potential liability for spills, contamination, and induced seismicity.
Description
Hydraulic fracturing and conventional oil/gas production create large amounts of produced water and flowback that must undergo storage, transportation, treatment, reuse, and/or disposal. Underground injection constitutes a primary management method, but increasing disposal capacity, reservoir pressure, seismicity, water scarcity, and other operational costs are focusing new attention on recycling and beneficial reuse.
A fragmented legal framework makes advising on these matters complex. The Clean Water Act curtails discharges under EPA's oil and gas extraction effluent guidelines. The Safe Drinking Water Act and state programs regulate Class II injection wells. Some produced water and related waste may fall within the RCRA Subtitle C exemption, yet other federal and state requirements may still apply.
Listen as our authoritative panel addresses the commercial risks and the evolving regulation of produced water, providing practical guidance for managing compliance and allocating risk.
Presented By
Mr. Chimera is a partner in the Mass Tort and Product Liability practice group at K&L Gates, focusing on the defense of high-stakes toxic tort matters involving substances such as asbestos, ethylene oxide, benzene, formaldehyde, and other alleged contaminants. He regularly manages complex, bet the company litigation nationwide, including serving as national coordinating counsel, leading discovery, deposing plaintiffs and experts, and handling motion and trial practice.
Mr. Rieser has more than four decades of experience advising clients in all areas of environmental law, including legislative, regulatory, compliance, and law enforcement matters, corporate, commercial, and real estate transactions, governmental and private cost-recovery actions, environmental insurance coverage, and remediation of contaminated sites. He serves Fortune 100 and mid-sized companies operating in a broad range of industries, including power generation, chemicals, petroleum, steel, food and consumer products, financial services, and waste management. In the legislative and regulatory arena, Mr. Rieser has represented trade associations, industry groups, and individual companies in numerous matters involving the U.S. EPA and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. He also represented power generating companies in permitting and administrative proceedings, and prepared responses to agency requests for information regarding CAA issues. An experienced litigator, Mr. Rieser has argued cases in federal and state courts, including a recent victory in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in which he represented a coalition seeking to preserve commercial navigation in the Chicago waterways. Other matters have included cost recovery and enforcement actions.
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This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
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Date + Time
- event
Tuesday, December 8, 2026
- schedule
1:00 PM ET/ 10:00 AM PT
I. Produced water management overview
A. Flowback and produced water
B. Storage, transportation, recycling, reuse, and disposal methods
C. Disposal capacity, water scarcity, formation pressure, and seismicity
II. Federal regulatory framework
A. Clean Water Act, 40 CFR Part 435 discharge restrictions
B. Safe Drinking Water Act, Class II UIC permitting, primacy, monitoring, and closure
C. RCRA waste exemption, SPCC requirements, release reporting
III. State regulation, disposal wells, and seismicity
A. Siting, area of review, injection pressure and volume limits, financial assurance
B. Seismic monitoring, response areas, permit modification, curtailment, and suspension
IV. Treatment, recycling, and beneficial reuse
A. In-field recycling and reuse, outside uses beyond oil & gas
B. Treatment specifications, sampling, residuals, chain of custody, and recordkeeping
V. Contracting, liability, and compliance
A. Produced water gathering, transportation, treatment, recycling, and disposal agreements
B. Title and custody, specifications, capacity, rejected loads, fees, force majeure, change in law, indemnity, and insurance
C. Litigation risks associated with produced water, including mass tort, medical monitoring, and commercial disputes
The panel will review these and other key questions:
- How do the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, RCRA, and state oil/gas laws regulate produced water?
- What permitting, operating, monitoring, and related requirements apply to Class II wells?
- Distinguishing recycling/reuse within oil/gas operations from outside beneficial reuse
- When does the RCRA waste exemption apply, and where are its limits?
- How do produced water management agreements allocate ownership, custody, specifications, capacity, change-in-law, indemnity, and insurance risks?
- What liabilities may arise during produced water management?
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