Posted May 19, 2014
The U.S. Environmental Protections Agency (EPA) has
issued an advance notice of proposed rule-making, considering regulations that
would require companies to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”
operations, according to an article by The Hill available here.
The EPA’s recent advance notice of proposed
rule-making, available here,
was published in response to a petition filed by Earthjustice and over 100
other environmental organizations asking for testing and reporting rules. The groups raised “concerns over various
chemicals used during the fracking process, which involves pumping water, sand
and chemicals underground in order to fracture rock and unlock trapped oil and
gas.”
The agency noted that it is only asking for feedback
from those involved and “is not committing to a specific rulemaking outcome” in
a notice filed with the Office of Management and Budget available here.
“EPA is anticipating that States, industry, public interest
groups, and members of the public will be participants the process,” said the agency. “The stakeholder process will bring
stakeholders together to discuss the information needs and help EPA to ensure
any reporting burdens and costs are minimized, ensuring information already
available is considered in order to avoid duplication of efforts.”
Eighteen states already require companies to disclose
the identity of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, according to an article
by Bloomberg BNA available here.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) says that new
rulemaking for fracking is not necessary. “A new EPA rulemaking on this subject
is unnecessary and duplicative. Robust
chemical information is already available to EPA, as well as state regulators
that are the primary regulators for oil and gas operations,” said API spokesman
Zachary Cikanek. API supports the use of
FracFocus to provide the public
with information on fracturing.
Deborah Goldberg, a managing attorney for Earthjustice,
said that regulations are needed to provide consistency in the collection of
information and equal access to the information.
For more information on hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure
requirements and legal issues, recent reports from the Congressional Research
Service are available on the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here
and here.
