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Environment

Wyoming Requires Chemical Disclosure

by Glenn Hess
June 21, 2010 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 88, Issue 25

Wyoming has become the first state in the nation to require the energy industry to disclose which chemicals are used in hydraulic fracturing, a controversial drilling technique used to release hydrocarbons locked deep underground in shale rock formations. The process involves blasting chemically treated water and sand into a wellbore at high pressure to stimulate natural gas production. Industry maintains that the practice is safe, but environmental activists have raised concerns that it could contaminate drinking-water supplies. “People should be able to find out what chemicals they may have come in contact with, and emergency room doctors need this information in order to treat their patients and protect their staff,” says Dan Heilig, staff attorney with Western Resource Advocates, a conservation group. New reporting rules require state regulators to keep information about the chemical mixtures confidential if a company can prove it is proprietary. In March, EPA launched a two-year research effort to examine the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on water quality and public health. And Democrats in Congress have proposed legislation (H.R. 2766, S. 1215) that would use the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to require companies to disclose the chemicals they use.

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