The US Environmental Protection Agency asked nine service companies to voluntarily supply information about chemicals in their hydraulic fracturing fluids for its study of the completion process's possible effects on subsurface drinking water.
It asked the companies to provide the information within 30 days and to report within 7 days whether they will be able to comply.
EPA undertook its study in response to a 2009 congressional directive and has held public hearings, the final two of which are scheduled for Sept. 13 and 15 in Binghamton, NY. In its request, it also asked BJ Services Co., Complete Production Services Inc., Halliburton Co., Key Energy Services Inc., Patterson-UTI Energy Inc., RPC Inc., Schlumberger Ltd., Superior Well Services Inc., and Weatherford International Ltd. to provide data on the chemicals' human health and environmental impacts and standard operating procedures and locations of sites where the process has been used.
In a Sept. 10 teleconference with reporters, Stephanie Meadows, a senior upstream policy advisor at the American Petroleum Institute, said she considered EPA's request part of the agency's efforts to get information. "EPA has put some protections within these solicitations to protect propriety information. This is just one piece of the full study," she said.
Study's focus
She said API told EPA's science advisory board earlier this year that the examination should focus on fracing's potential drinking water supply impacts, as Congress directed, and not be broader.
She said API favors disclosing the information and noted that two states already have enacted their own statutes. "Wyoming is about to embark on its policy, which requires disclosure by Sept. 15, and Colorado already has one," she said. "In both states, limited information is posted publicly and, in emergencies, full disclosure would be made."
Pennsylvania also has amended its regulations with new cementing requirements and limits on allowable solids in frac fluids, Meadows added.
She also said API opposes proposals to regulate fracing under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. "We don't see the need for another layer of federal oversight. States have the authority to regulate these operations, and they have for the last 60 years," Meadows said. "I think that what we'll find, at the end of this, is what we've known all along–that there aren't great impacts on drinking water from our operations."
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