Fracking Companies Exploit Water Law Loophole

Environmental Integrity Project Has Found Fracking Companies are Exploiting a Loophole to Frack with Toxic Chemicals

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyrequires drilling companies to obtain SafeDrinking Water Act permits before theyare allowed to inject diesel products intothe ground to hydrofracture ("frack") for oil andgas.

These permits act as safeguards for publichealth because they require drillers to take stepsto reduce the risk that benzene and relatedpollutants found in diesel will contaminategroundwater.

The compounds found in diesel,called BTEX for Benzene, Toluene,Ethylbenzene, and Xylene, are highly toxic and
subject to federal health-based standards fordrinking water to reduce the risk of cancer and other diseases.

AnAugust 2014 report by the Environmental Integrity Project, "FrackingBeyond the Law," documented the illegal use of diesel in fracking anddescribed how this practice poses a risk to drinking water supplies.

This follow-up report describes an even greater potential public healththreat from a loophole in the law. Because of a gap in the Safe DrinkingWater Act, companies are allowed to inject other petroleum products(beyond diesel) without a permit, and many of these non-diesel drillingfluids contain even higher concentrations of the same toxins found indiesel.

This report is based on a review of drilling company disclosuresmade to an industry-sponsored database ofchemicals used in hydraulicfracturing, called "FracFocus," as well as industry Material Data SafetySheets.

Exactly how often companies use these other highly toxicpetroleum products in fracking is unclear, in part because not all firmsdisclose to FracFocus, and some of those that do withhold chemicalingredients as "proprietary"information.

But the EnvironmentalIntegrity Project's research suggests the use of fluids containing one ormore BTEX toxins is fairly common.

At least six fracking fluid additiveson the market today contain more benzene (a carcinogen) than diesel fuel. And at least 21 fluids sold by Halliburton andother companies contain much higher concentrations of ethylbenzene , xylene or toluene (which can cause neurologicalproblems and other health effects) than diesel.

Even the limited data available on FracFocus shows at least 153 wells in11 states were fracked with fluids containing ethylbenzene betweenJanuary 2011 and September 2014.

In some cases, the amount of toxic (but non-diesel) fracking fluids beinginjected into the ground is large.

For example, in September 2014, aTexas-based oil and gas company called BlackBrush O&G, LLC,reported injecting a mix of crude oil, butane, and other fluids containingup to 48,000 gallons of benzene into a well in Dimmit County, Texas.

Between May 2013 and February 2014, another oil and gas firm,Discovery Operating Services, reported injecting solvents containingnearly 1,000 gallons of benzene into eleven wells in Midland and UptonCounties in Texas.

While fracking fluids are injected into shale formations deepunderground, even a small leak into a drinking water aquifer nearer thesurface can be catastrophic.

Federal standards for public water supplieslimit benzene exposure to no more than 5 parts per billion, meaning that
a quarter teaspoon of this toxin would be enough to make a swimmingpool unsafe to drink.

The 2005 Energy Policy Act preserved the Environmental ProtectionAgency's (EPA) authority to regulate diesel-based fracking fluids becauseof the toxicity of BTEX compounds and the concentrations found indiesel.

But the so-called "Halliburton loophole" in the same law prohibitsEPA from applying the same groundwater protection standards for otherfracking products that contain even higher percentages of the sametoxins.

This double standard illustrates what happens when Congressmanipulates environmental statutes for the benefit of polluters, instead ofallowing EPA to make public health decisions based on the best availablescience.

The analysis that follows is based on the limited amount of data availablethrough FracFocus, as well as fromMaterial Safety Data Sheets fordrilling fluids that are offered for sale to well operators.

FracFocus is aprivately-run, non-mandatory fracking chemical reporting programcreated by industry, but not all companies participate.

Many of thecompanies that do report to FracFocus claim that fracking fluid recipesare proprietary information that cannot be disclosed.

Yet Material SafetyData Sheets make clear that benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene,xyleneare significantcomponents of fracking fluids, even if the failure to reportor trade secret claims make it impossible to quantify the full extent of
their use.

Source: Environmental Integrity

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Taxonomy

• Water Law
• Pollution
• Fracking