In response to concerns of contaminated drinking water supplies near hydraulic fracturing (fracking) sites, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriation Conference Committee identified a need for scientific study of fracking operations. At the direction of Congress, the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) launched a 1.9 million dollar study to investigate fracking’s impact on drinking water and groundwater. In response to the study, the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) encouraged North Dakota residents to support the oil and gas industry by submitting a formal complaint to the EPA, urging it to discontinue the study. State lawmakers backed the NDIC request by unanimously approving a bill that declared fracking an acceptable recovery process in North Dakota. This note will compare and contrast North Dakota’s oil and gas regulations with those of other oil rich states, arguing North Dakota’s regulations have failed to evolve in response to increased drilling activity and concluding North Dakota’s regulations require modernization to ensure the risk of groundwater contamination is mitigated.