The Nation - News from Aug. 7, 1985

The Environmental Protection Agency said it would soon propose rules requiring offshore oil and gas drillers to treat the wastes they produce before discharging them to the ocean. The EPA also said the rules would require future shallow-water drillers to inject back into the sea floor the briny liquids called “produced water,” toxic pollutants that emerge with oil and gas. The offshore industry will have to spend about $36 million annually to comply, and 126 shallow drillers will have to spend about $56 million a year, but there should be no effect on production or prices, the EPA said.