California officials allowed oil and gas companies to pump nearly three billion gallons of waste water into underground aquifers that could have been used for drinking water or irrigation, NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit reported. Those aquifers are supposed to be off-limits to that kind of activity, protected by the EPA. California’s Department of Conservation’s Chief Deputy Director Jason Marshall told NBC Bay Area, “In multiple different places of the permitting process an error could have been made.”
