California Offshore Fracking Reports Sought By EPA

Federal environmental regulators will start requiring oil and gas operations off the Southern California coast to report chemicals discharged into the ocean from fracking.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday published the requirement in the federal register, and will become effective March 1.

The move comes after a series of stories by The Associated Press revealed at least a dozen fracking operations in the Santa Barbara Channel, and more than 200 in nearshore waters overseen by the state of California.

The jobs were conducted with no separate environmental analysis of the fracking chemicals on the sea environment, and little or no oversight.

Fracking involves pumping large amounts of sand, water and chemicals deep underground to release oil.

The oil industry insists fracking does not harm the environment.