Fracturing site to detail what's in the water

Elizabeth Ames Jones ELIZABETH A. JONES. RAILROAD COMMISSIONER Elizabeth Ames Jones ELIZABETH A. JONES. RAILROAD COMMISSIONER Photo: handout Photo: handout Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Fracturing site to detail what's in the water 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Companies working in Texas oil fields must disclose the amount of water and the mix of chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing starting Wednesday, under a new rule heralded by industry and environmentalists as a big transparency improvement.

The rule, passed in last year's legislative session, requires service companies or suppliers to provide the well operators with the name of each chemical ingredient and to register this information on a national website, FracFocus, created for this purpose.

It applies to wells for which the Railroad Commission issues initial drilling permits Wednesday or later.

Regulators say the new rule is designed to address public concern about the potential environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing - which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals into rocky formations at high pressure to release oil and gas.

"The main thing is the transparency," said Elizabeth Ames Jones, chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the oil and gas industry in the state.

"This rule aims to shore up the confidence of Texans that the environment is going to be protected. The entire energy economy of Texas is tied in with how we are going to use other resources."

Hydraulic fracturing requires huge amounts of water, drawing particular concern in drought-parched Texas.

Depending upon the location and complexity of the well, fracturing can require 3 million to 6 million gallons of water, mixed with a small concentration of chemicals and sand, according to the Railroad Commission.

The FracFocus website, established on Jan. 1, 2011 as a clearinghouse for fracturing data from across the country, reported it had more than 7,000 records in the system and 80 participating companies as of mid-November.

It is managed by the Ground Water Protection Council and Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

Wyoming, Louisiana and Montana have enacted disclosure rules similar to the one in Texas, and a Colorado rule takes effect April 1.

Alaska, West Virginia and Oklahoma are either considering or preparing disclosure rules, according to Mike Nickolaus, director of the FracFocus project for the Groundwater Protection Council.

Many companies in Texas were ahead of the curve, according to the Railroad Commission, which reports that roughly half of all Texas operatorshave registered voluntarily.

"We felt like it was the right thing to do to provide that information to stakeholders," said Chip Minty, a spokesman for Devon Energy, one of the first operators to disclose data on its chemicals when the site went live.

Under the new rule, companies in Texas must disclose the concentration of chemicals regulated by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but not of unregulated chemicals.

Companies are exempt from disclosing specific chemicals if they are trade secrets, but must identify the chemical family.

The new website also will provide more reliable information about amounts of water used, important data for Texas water planners trying to defend against the drought.

"Any bit of extra information we can get on a timely basis related to water use is a good thing," said Dan Harden, director of water resource planning for the Texas Water Development Board, which oversees planned water use in Texas. "Previously, in estimating mining use for water, we had to rely on secondary data for estimates. Having the data reported from the primary source is a good step forward."

Companies aren't required to report the source of the water - whether it comes from underground aquifers or surface reservoirs and rivers - although water use planners say that information could be important, especially during a drought.

"Where there is a drought, there is no more surface water. If there is heavy pumping from groundwater, that may impact local wells." said Jean-Philippe Nicot, a research scientist with the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, who focuses on water use related to fracturing.

Environmentalists say that data on groundwater are especially important because water used in fracturing - called "produced water" - typically is placed in disposal wells far below the water table

Water used for irrigation, by contrast, stays in the ecosystem, said Amy Hardberger, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund.

"It's different when you are disposing of water five to ten thousand feet underground. That water will be permanently removed from the cycle."

Railroad Commissioner David Porter said lawmakers may have to consider adding a water source disclosure requirement. "We tried to follow quite closely what the Legislature asked for," Porter said, "and all they asked for was the volume."

emily.pickrell@chron.com