Fracking Fluid

A major component in the process of fracking is the high pressure injection of fracking fluid into the dense shale rock deep below the Earth’s surface. But what exactly does fracking fluid consist of? Truth be told–and its not a pretty truth–we don’t exactly know. If you look up academic and/or scientific research in regards to the contents of fracking fluid, something I have been doing for months, you will notice the use of words like, “The Potential Components of Fracking Fluid” or “The Possible…” or “The Likely…”. For many of us, well at least for me, this is frustrating!

What we do know…

What we do know about fracking fluid is that it is composed of three major components: water, chemicals, and sand. It includes up to 600 different chemicals including many known carcinogens and toxins, such as: lead, uranium, mercury, ethylene glycol, radium, methanol, hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde, and so on. If you remember from our “What Exactly is Fracking” post each frack job requires on average 8 million gallons of water, 40,000 gallons of chemicals and sand. Last week we discussed where and how private gas companies get the water. But what chemicals are used in fracking fluid?

The Halliburton Loophole & The FRAC Act

To most people who are involved with fracking and fracking policy, or lack thereof, the term Halliburton Loophole, makes you cringe. For those of you who are hearing about it for the first time, give me a few minutes and you’ll understand why. The Halliburton Loophole was a provision made to the 2005 Energy Bill and was inserted by then-Vice President, Dick Cheney, a former chief executive of Halliburton Energy Company. Coincidence? The loophole stripped the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its authority to regulate fracking, which as you might have guessed was invented by Halliburton Energy Company. Probably just another coincidence? Well, long-story-short, the loophole exempts gas drilling and extraction companies from the requirements of Underground Injection Control (UIC), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Clean Air Act (CAA), and Clean Water Act (CWA). Now I don’t know about you, but personally I don’t want my nation’s water quality and supply to rely on the luck or the public relations talents of the private gas industry.

In 2009, Diana DeGette (D-CO), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Jared Polis (D-CO) sponsored a legislative proposal to US Congress called the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, or FRAC Act. The bill called on Congress to define fracking as a federally regulated activity under the Safe Drinking Water Act. It would require the private gas companies to disclose the chemical additives used in fracking fluid. Of course private gas companies strongly opposed the legislature. The gas companies argue that the chemicals are proprietary secrets and that disclosing them would hurt their competitiveness. They also claim that fracking is “basically” safe and that regulating it would deter domestic production of natural gas. But as an article in the New York Times so eloquently states, “[I]f hydraulic fracturing is as safe as the industry says it is, why should it fear regulation?”

To counter-argue, the FRAC Act calls for the “chemical constituents ( but not the proprietary chemical formulas) used in fracking” to be made public. The exception to this would be in the even that physicians or the State declare a medical emergency, in which the chemical formulas would be necessary to treat ailing individuals, the firm must disclose the chemical identity to the State or physician– even if it is a trade secret. The Act also asks for Material Safety Data Sheets, required by OSHA, to be developed and made available to first responders and other emergency response officials.

Private gas companies continue to oppose the Act saying that it is “an additional layer of regulation that is unneeded and cumbersome”. According to private research performed by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, federal regulation could result in the addition of about $100,000 to each new frack well and would be an “unnecessary financial burden on privately run gas companies”. Energy in Depth, a lobbying group,  claimed that the bill could result in the closure of half of the current gas wells, which would cause decreased domestic gas production and the loss of up to $4 billion in revenue to the federal government.

As you can probably guess, Congress has not yet passed the FRAC Act although it has been introduced 3 times,–once in 2009, again in 2011, and again in 2013. Unfortunately, it only has a 1% chance of being enacted. (To keep up with the progress of the act, click here)

What makes things worse is that on average only 50% of fracking fluid is recovered after injection. The rest of the toxic fluid is left in the ground and is NOT biodegradable. It instead enters and alters our water cycle. So the big question I’m going to leave you with today is:

Where does all this waste go?