In this July 2015 file photo, Patrick Niebuhr, district technology manager for Halliburton, explains the information on monitors inside the command center during a hydraulic fracturing operation for Chevron.
The fracking pad at Chevron's hydraulic fracturing operation at Lost Hills, shown here in July 2015, shows the large mobile high pressure pumps that send slurry, a mixture of sand, water, and chemicals, to a well about 400 feet away. The two large towers hold the sand used in the process.
Using computers, Halliburton supervisors Ramon Perez, left, and Jonathon Vangel monitor Chevron's hydraulic fracturing operation at Lost Hills from the command center located about 60 feet from the fracking pad. The well where the fracking is taking place was another 400 feet from the pad and command center.
Two "sand castles" tower above the "missile" (lower right) at Chevron's fracking pad in the Lost Hills area, as shown in this file photo from July 2015. The missile is a manifold that takes in the slurry and sends it out through high-pressure lines to the well for hydraulic fracturing. The towers hold the sand used in the process.
In this July 2015 file photo, Patrick Niebuhr, district technology manager for Halliburton, explains the information on monitors inside the command center during a hydraulic fracturing operation for Chevron.
Californian file
The fracking pad at Chevron's hydraulic fracturing operation at Lost Hills, shown here in July 2015, shows the large mobile high pressure pumps that send slurry, a mixture of sand, water, and chemicals, to a well about 400 feet away. The two large towers hold the sand used in the process.
The Californian file photo
Using computers, Halliburton supervisors Ramon Perez, left, and Jonathon Vangel monitor Chevron's hydraulic fracturing operation at Lost Hills from the command center located about 60 feet from the fracking pad. The well where the fracking is taking place was another 400 feet from the pad and command center.
Felix Adamo / Californian
Two "sand castles" tower above the "missile" (lower right) at Chevron's fracking pad in the Lost Hills area, as shown in this file photo from July 2015. The missile is a manifold that takes in the slurry and sends it out through high-pressure lines to the well for hydraulic fracturing. The towers hold the sand used in the process.
A long-running legal battle over federal oil-and-gas leasing in California may be nearing resolution after new findings by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that the oilfield technique known as fracking does not pose undue environmental harm to 1.2 million acres in Kern County and other parts of California.
The findings, contained in an environmental review the BLM's Bakersfield office released late last week, do not automatically open new lands to the controversial well-completion practice also known as hydraulic fracturing.
