The Governor of California Signs Fracking Regulation Bill

Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation this past Friday that marks California’s first regulation for hydraulic fracturing.

The bill, which is most likely the toughest regulation yet for fracking, requires oil drillers to disclose the chemicals used and acquire permits before engaging in fracking. Other provisions of the legislation, which will take effect in January, call for oil companies to test groundwater, notify neighboring landowners before drilling, and to conduct a study about fracking’s impact on the environment by January 2015.

Although the bill was originally met with support from environmental groups, some of these groups have revoked their endorsements and now argue the regulation is not enough; whereas oil companies oppose it, claiming the bill will make it much harder to take full advantage of the oil from California’s southern San Joaquin Valley.

Gov. Brown has said the bill “establishes strong environmental protections and transparency requirements.” However, he also plans to explore further changes next year to clarify the new requirements.

Before this legislation, SB4, California did not have regulations for fracking. The new bill will undoubtedly require a great deal more reporting and permitting for the oil and gas industry. For companies engaging in hydraulic fracturing in California, the time is now to prepare for this new bill by organizing their information and automating reporting to ensure that regulations are met while their operational costs are lowered.

Locus Introduces Software Functionality to Support ERPIMS Imports and Exports

Companies can now use Locus’ EIM software to comply with the U.S. Air Force standard ERPIMS system

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 16 September 2013 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and information management software, has expanded its award-winning Environmental Information Management (EIM) software to support ERPIMS imports and exports.

The Environmental Resources Program Information Management System (ERPIMS) is the system that the U.S. Air Force uses for validation and management of data from all environmental projects at its bases. This data can be complex, containing analytical chemistry samples, tests, and results, as well as monitoring well specifications, descriptions of sites, and hydrogeological information. It can also be a challenge for organizations working on relevant Air Force projects to correctly abide by ERPIMS formatting. In order to support these organizations, Locus has added ERPIMS laboratory imports and critical regulatory exports to its EIM software.

“Locus’ EIM has been managing detailed analytical information since 1999, and today manages environmental data for some of the world’s largest companies,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. “Incorporating ERPIMS compatibility within EIM is just another example of how we are constantly striving to make processes simpler for our current and future customers.”

EIM was the first subscription-based application to organize, manage, and report sampling, analytical and subsurface data in the Cloud. The ERPIMS import and export functionality is the newest component in EIM, and is available for use immediately.

Metals and Mining Companies must Work Ahead to Manage Water Risks

According to analysis from Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Eurizon Capital, metals and mining companies that take action now to manage their water risks will be much better off financially in the future.

The research findings state that water stress is the most reported risk to operations- being identified as so by more than two-thirds of the sample. The majority of participating businesses were severely hit by water-related issues in the past five years, and almost half of the companies expect water stress to affect their businesses in the next five years. Also, with these negative water impacts comes increased spending.

However, the CDP report also finds that companies that manage and report on these water issues are also the ones that experience better financial returns. Companies that properly plan for the future get to avoid the increased operating costs, lower revenues, and decreased shareholder value that comes along with poor water stewardship.

An inadequate volume or quality of water can significantly decrease access to commodity reserves that are essential to the business operations of mining and metals companies. With such an important resource, it is obviously critical that it be properly managed and reported on. Luckily, there are tools that exist today, such as Locus’ robust environmental management software systems, that can help these companies effectively manage their water risks.

Locus Introduces Conflict Minerals SaaS Module

New Locus module to help companies comply with conflict minerals ruling

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., 22 July 2013 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the leader in cloud-based environmental compliance and information management software, has introduced the conflict minerals module to its comprehensive SaaS platform. The conflict minerals module will provide companies with the tools necessary to comply with section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the new conflict minerals regulations adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Locus developed the new module to help companies oversee their use of conflict minerals such as gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten more easily through a thorough checklist and through interactive mapping functionality. The module serves as a centralized point of reference through which companies can track, manage, and aggregate information from their suppliers about conflict minerals by product, division, or business unit. The module will make the due diligence and reporting obligations that accompany this new ruling less expensive and time-consuming. It will also support the audit capabilities as required by law.

“We recognized the burden being placed on certain customers when the conflict minerals ruling was finalized, and saw an opportunity for Locus to help. Performing conflict minerals reporting through spreadsheets or home-built systems for a large Fortune 100 company can easily consume the time of more than 10 full-time employees,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. “Locus is continuously striving to stay on top of new rules and regulations, and the web-based, multi-tenant architecture of our software solutions allow us to easily add new functionality and updates to our state-of-the art cloud platform. By introducing this new module, we hope that complying with the SEC’s conflict minerals rule will no longer be such a daunting and expensive task.”

The U.S. SEC finalized this conflict minerals ruling in August 2012. The rule requires companies to publicly disclose their use of conflict minerals that originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo or its adjoining countries. Locus’ Conflict Minerals module will be available to both new and existing customers in fall 2013 and could be used to facilitate the current year filings.

EPRI Groundwater Protection Workshop and NEI RETS-REMP Workshop Recap

Combining the NEI RETS-REMP with the EPRI Groundwater Protection Workshop solidified a theme to unify efforts as utilities gain experience implementing protection programs.

Locus to attend and present at NEI’s RETS-REMP Workshop and the EPRI Groundwater Protection Workshop

The RETS-REMP Workshop is a forum to exchange practical experiences and issues related to the Radioactive Effluent Technical Specifications (RETS) and Radiological Environmental Monitoring Programs (REMP) at commercial nuclear power plants.

Locus to Attend and Co-present with Del Monte Foods at the 2013 Food and Beverage Environmental Conference

The annual Food & Beverage Environmental Conference (FBEC) continues to be the premier environmental event for the food industry, bringing together senior environmental managers from food and beverage companies to share their experiences with sustainable practices, environmental compliance and new technologies and approaches.

Locus Adds New Functionality to Generate AREOR Data Summary Tables in its EIM Software

Locus’ Nuclear Customers can Easily Meet Regulatory Compliance with EIM

SAN FRANCISCO, 25 February 2013 — Locus Technologies (Locus), the industry leader in Cloud-computing enterprise software for environmental, energy, air, water, and compliance management, has added brand new functionality to its flagship EIM product that gives customers the ability to easily generate the Annual Radiological Environmental Operating Report (AREOR) Data Summary Tables.

Any organization that has a Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program (REMP) must submit this report on an annual basis. The AREOR is highly analytical and requires specific groupings and summary statistics in order for an organization to meet regulatory compliance. Typically, generating these AREOR annual data summary tables are a tedious and time-intensive process.

Locus recognized this reporting difficulty after speaking with one of its customers, PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant. After listening to the current challenge and PG&E’s suggestions, the importance of building the AREOR data summary tables as a formatted report and making it available to all of EIM’s nuclear customer databases was apparent. Now, what used to take multiple weeks to complete is condensed down to a few hours.

“REMP professionals who create their site’s AREOR know how long it takes to generate data summary tables. Every year I spent around one to two weeks manipulating data in Excel spreadsheets creating these sampling matrix data tables for my AREOR,” said Martin Wright, Senior RP Engineer at Diablo Canyon. “With Locus EIM formatted reports, each sampling matrix data summary table is now generated in one to two seconds, with just a few clicks. The initial one time setup of the formatted templates took me about two hours to understand and actually setup in EIM. Once the templates are in place in EIM, I simply change the date ranges when generating the annual summary tables for my report. This feature will save 40 to 80 hours of workload for me each year.”

“Locus has a strong presence in the nuclear industry, and after hearing about the difficulties that our customers were experiencing when completing AREOR data summary tables, we knew it was necessary to make the AREOR tables an off-the-shelf formatted report within EIM,” said Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus. “This is a good example of when ‘wisdom of the crowd’ helps to advance knowledge and streamline otherwise tedious, but necessary processes. With a great idea from one customer—all EIM customers will benefit almost instantly and reduce their operating cost in years to come. That is the real power of a web-based system with a rolling upgrade model. We are grateful to PG&E for working with us and sharing their knowledge and experience in promoting the industry’s state-of-the-art technology.”

 

Latest version of proposed regulation changes on hydrofracking expected this week

It’s no secret that hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, has been a popular topic for debate in recent years. Another occurrence revolving around this that has garnered support from some, and opposition from others, is Texas’ oil and gas regulatory agency, the Railroad Commission, updating its rules to address all aspects of the drilling process.

The latest version of the proposed rule changes is expected this week, and will be the largest revamping of Texas well construction regulations since the 1970s. These rules are important to ensure that toxic, fracking-related fluids do not leak into aquifers due to poor construction of oil and gas wells. These regulations will require examinations of things such as the quality of the protective cement placed between layers of pipe in a well, and a pressure test for the pipes themselves.

Keeping with the controversial theme around hydrofracking, some say the rule changes are too restrictive, and others say they aren’t enough. But most agree that hydrofracking does have the potential to contaminate groundwater if not performed correctly.

The contamination of groundwater can occur from faulty drilling or well completion. For the natural gas industry to ensure this doesn’t happen and to stay in compliance with these new regulations, it must keep up with an ongoing monitoring of site conditions and air emissions, management of production water, and the remediation of adverse environmental impacts: all of which involve the collection and analysis of large quantities of complex data.

Owners of hydrofracking sites and drilling companies need to take advantage of existing software tools to better organize their hydrofracking waste and water quality data. By using SaaS based software like Locus’ EIM to organize, manage, validate, visualize, store, and report this information, they can effectively demonstrate that this drilling can be done safely and transparently.