Secrets of hydrofracking

According to Reuters, EPA will be conducting a study of the components of hydrofracking fluid used to facilitate extraction of natural gas by opening fissures in shale. Interesting, considering that I recently spoke with (ex-)Congressman Massa's staff regarding potential water quality impacts to Keuka Lake as a result of hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale, and one of the major concerns was that nobody really knows what lurks in these proprietary concoctions.

Here's a letter from the Energy & Commerce Committee that spells out some of Congress's concerns, including the fact that government has virtually no ability to regulate the components of hydrofracking fluid and that the process has been excepted from complying with the Safe Drinking Water Act, except when companies use diesel fuel as an additive in the fracking fluids (which they agreed to stop in 2003, but which some have admitted to using as recently as 2007). Below is a particularly scary excerpt from the document (emphasis added):

Federal regulators currently do not have access to a full accounting of the types and quantities of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluids, although some states require disclosure. Under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, approximately 22,000 industrial and federal facilities must report to EPA the quantity of toxic chemicals they release, store, or transfer, which is then made public in the annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Oil and gas exploration and production facilities are exempt from this reporting requirement. EPA also does not have authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to require disclosure of the chemicals injected in hydraulic fracturing operations.

EPA has raised particular concerns about diesel fuel, noting that the “use of diesel fuel in fracturing fluids poses the greatest threat” to underground sources of drinking water. Diesel contains constituents regulated under SDWA because of their toxicity, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX chemicals). The Department of Health and Human Services, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and EPA have determined that benzene is a human carcinogen. Chronic exposure to toluene, ethylbenzene, or xylenes can damage the central nervous system, liver, and kidneys.

In December 2003, EPA entered into a voluntary memorandum of agreement with the three largest hydraulic fracturing companies, Halliburton, BJ Services, and Schlumberger, to “eliminate diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing fluids injected into coalbed methane production wells in underground sources of drinking water.” The MOA focused on coalbed methane wells, as these wells tend to be shallower and closer to underground sources of drinking water than conventional oil and gas production wells. The MOA does not contain any enforcement provisions nor does it confer immunity in an action to enforce the SDWA or EPA’s regulations on underground injection.

In 2005, Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the SDWA as part of the Energy Policy Act. Many dubbed this provision the “Halliburton loophole” because of Halliburton’s ties to then-Vice President Cheney and its role as one of the largest providers of hydraulic fracturing services. Specifically, Congress modified the definition of “underground injection” to exclude “the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities.” As a result of this exemption, EPA cannot use the SDWA to regulate hydraulic fracturing unless it can show the use of diesel fuels.

Environmental groups, public health officials, and communities across the country have raised other concerns about hydraulic fracturing, beyond potential impacts on drinking water. In Texas, state regulators are responding to tests showing high levels of benzene in the air near wells in the Barnett Shale gas fields. In Pennsylvania, state regulators are facing a new challenge of how to ensure proper disposal of the millions of gallons of wastewater generated from natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale. In New York, the state Department of Environmental Conservation analyzed wastewater extracted from wells and found levels of radium-226 as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink. Others have raised concerns about water scarcity, since the drilling and hydraulic fracturing of a horizontal shale gas well may require 2 to 4 million gallons of water.