Hydraulic Fracking: Initiatives Coming

Despite several agency investigations, “they’ve never found evidence that it has caused contamination,” he said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been conducting a study on hydraulic fracturing for a year, with an initial report due out at the end of 2012. The study includes laboratory research, computer modeling, scenario evaluations and field investigations, including prospective and retrospective case studies. It also characterizes the toxicity of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

According to Kemp, the American Petroleum Institute hired Battelle to shadow the EPA study (watch it closely to ensure study parameters are fair). One reason is that “In this instance, the EPA has not been transparent, which is part of its mandate. Also, the EPA was going to limit the study to five sites, and only where spills had happened. They were using old technology to represent what is happening today,” Kemp explained.

Kemp said the EPA is expected to require reporting and recordkeeping on fracturing chemicals, submission of any data on environmental or health effects and exposures, and submission of health and safety studies under the Toxic Substances Control Act. The industry is concerned about the need for more rulemaking since producers already supply extensive information about fracturing chemicals to EPA.

Kemp pointed out that the situation is complicated in this country by politics.

“If the administrator [of EPA] could be less swayed by politics, we would get better answers by the EPA,” Kemp said. In other countries, such as Brazil, people who work for environmental regulators “are personally liable for what they do. If they make a statement, if they do anything for a political cause and not science-based, they are personally liable. Their regulators try to stick to the science. Ours are a little less inclined to do so.”

The Bureau of Land Management has also stepped into the fray, according to Kemp. For federal leases, for example, proposed regulations would require extensive disclosure of fracturing chemical information, impose new permitting requirements for operations and require plans for management of flowback water. The bureau is also asking for two months advanced notice of what chemicals will be used. “The problem is, the chemical being used change on the fly,” said Kemp. Also, by the time the bureau proposed its regulations, 20 states had already taken action on the issue.

The EPA also recently put out regulations on air quality at fracking sites. Yet, as Kemp pointed out, no technology exists today to address air quality issues. “There is no fix to make industry able to comply with these regulations. This would require a company to invent something,” Kemp pointed out.

Currently, four states are in the process and 19 states have passed legislation on hydraulic fracturing.

Kemp told attendees to look at Colorado’s law. That law, which took effect in April 2012, requires operators to disclose the location of a well, the depth of the well, and the well’s name and registration number. The total volume of fluid used for fracturing also must be disclosed as well as whatever the base fluid is, if it is not water. Each additive of the fluid must be identified by Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) number and its function and maximum concentration must be disclosed. Trade secret additives can be listed by chemical family instead of CAS number. The state is requiring all of the information be posted on the FracFocus.org website, a quasi-federal, quasi-state site created to protect groundwater in all the states. Although a huge amount of information is needed, “The governor [of that state] got industry and environmentalists together and told them to agree on a way that this is going to work,” he said. The result was a good compromise.

According to Kemp, there will be more regulation from the EPA, more from the Bureau of Land Management and more state activity, including New York, California, Wyoming, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, which are currently in the process of creating regulations.

Kate Kunkel is Senior Editor of Valve Magazine. Contact her at kkunkel@vma.org.