Fuel Fix

Public comments on the Texas Railroad Commission’s draft hydraulic fracturing fluid disclosure rules were brief and largely positive during a one hour hearing in Austin on Wednesday.

Just a handful of speakers representing academia, industry and the environmental community spoke at the hearing.

The rules – based on a law passed by Texas lawmakers this past legislative session — require companies to list on a public website all the ingredients in the mix of fluids pumped under high pressure into shale formations to break them apart to release natural gas and oil.

Exceptions to disclosure include ingredients that are considered proprietary or trade secrets. The trade secrets designation can be appealed, but only by the property owner where the frac job took place, or an adjacent property owner.

Companies must also provide information on all the ingredients, including propriety ingredients, to health professionals or emergency workers, but those workers must keep that information confidential, according to the draft rules.

Data from about half of the wells being drilled is likely already being shared voluntarily by companies on the FracFocus web site, the commission said.

The rules behind the new law technically don’t need to be in place for nearly two years, but Commissioner David Porter vowed this past Spring to get the process moving more quickly.

During the hearing Rice University chemistry professor Andrew Barron said the rule requires more disclosure than the Food and Drug Administration requires for consumer product ingredients. For example, sodas aren’t required to disclose what’s in “flavoring” listed on their labels, he said.

The disclosure of the chemicals in fracking fluids will help also demystify the process, he said. He noted that common materials in frac fluids include guar gum, a thickening agent used in ice cream, and polyacrylamide, a chemical used for municipal water purification.

“Once you understand what is being used in a frac job is similar to what you’re consuming every day, it becomes demystified,” Barron said.

Cyrus Reed, Conservation Director for the Texas Chapter of the Sierra Club, said he was “overall pleased” with the rule making process and the fact Railroad Commission appeared to be moving faster than required by law to get the new rules in place. But he urged the Railroad Commission to keep in provisions that require the Texas Attorney General’s Office to review any challenge to trade secrets claims instead of providing a loophole for the industry.

Kathryn Baecht, a representative of the North Texas non-profit Citizens Organizing for Resources & Environment was less enthusiastic about the rules and fracking in general.

“That fact that we’re taking millions of gallons of water out of the hydraulic cycle is a crime,” Baechtsaid, referring to the many millions of gallons of water used in each frac job. ”It’s wrong.”

Baecht also said she thought the trade secret exemptions for fluid disclosure were too weak and that many in her area have doubts about the Railroad Commission’s commitment to protect individual welfare over industry interests.

Railroad Commission Chairman Elizabeth Ames-Jones said she was sorry to hear the group didn’t trust the Railroad Commission’s commitment to individuals, saying she was also a mother who had friends in all parts of Texas who might be affected by hydraulic fracturing.

Ames-Jones also stressed the technological advances being made in the hydraulic fracturing process that could make the process less toxic and require less water in the future.

“That may be true, but we need [that technology] now,” Baecht said, citing the ongoing drought in Texas.

Public comments on the draft rules will be accepted up until October 11. The Railroad Commission is expected to have the rules finalized by the end of the year.

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/10/05/mostly-praise-for-texas-draft-fr...