Texas Could Require Disclosure of Drilling Chemicals

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Hydraulic fracturing, an increasingly common method of extracting natural gas that involves shooting a concoction of water, sand and chemicals deep underground, has sparked controversy around the country — not least because drillers mostly keep their chemical formulas secret. But Texas, the leading gas-producing state, could help change industry practices by requiring public disclosure of the chemicals used.

A bill filed this month by state Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, who chairs the House Committee on Energy Resources, would create a website containing information about the chemicals used in each well. The bill has won praise from both industry and major environmental organizations including the Sierra Club, the Texas League of Conservation Voters and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

"EDF believes that passage of this bill would create the nation's strongest disclosure system," said Scott Anderson, an Austin-based senior policy adviser to the group's energy program. By embracing mandatory disclosure, he added, gas companies "have the opportunity to demonstrate to the public that the industry is no longer trying to hide the ball."

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-energy/energy/texas-require-disclosure-of-drilling-chemicals/?utm_source=texastribune.org&utm_medium=alerts&utm_campaign=News%20Alert:%20Subscriptions

[sonias]

1. Frack yes!

I think it's a superb idea, and finally a Rep from the impacted area is actually doing something that represents the needs of his district.

The Texas Railroad Commission on the other hand just sticks its head up its ass!

:kick:

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2. Same thing for salt water injection wells systems

What would you do with x gals of hazardous waste that you needed to get rid of?

[Beststash]

3. I'll believe it

when I see it. There is no why that any Rethug will ever be environmentally responsible - period. This is all about CYA because of all of the recent publicity.

These right-wing idiots and cows are the only mammals I know that crap where they eat. Pretty sad but true.

Peace

[sonias]

4. Just below the surface

Related story:

Denton Record-Chronicle 3/2911
Just below the surface

(snip)
The oil and gas industry uses a combination of groundwater, surface water and water purchased from utilities. Some use brackish water, which is lower in salinity than salt water and has few uses, and some buy wastewater. As a result, Bill Mullican, water consultant for the North Texas Groundwater Conservation District, says no one fully knows where the water comes from or how much is used.

“Because of the nature of water law in Texas, these activities are exempt,” he says. Texas law gives landowners control of water under the rule of capture, which allows them to pump as much water as they choose without liability to surrounding landowners. Even the law that gives more control to the groundwater conservation districts exempts most uses related to mining.

Geologists estimate that it takes about 250,000 gallons of water to drill a gas well, and another 1 million to 7 million gallons to frack it. The water that comes back up the well bore is laden with salt, chemicals, heavy metals and naturally occurring radioactive material. In North Texas, the wastewater can be disposed of by injecting it 8,000 to 10,000 feet below the surface into a porous limestone formation called the Ellenberger. But this water is no longer part of the water cycle. It cannot be used again.

Less frequently, the water that is brought up is distilled and used again for drilling and fracking. Any solid residue filtered out goes to landfills. While more expensive than injection, this treatment can be more practical in some cases for the operators, particularly in other parts of the country where injecting disposal water is not an option.

:kick:

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5. Thanks

I needed that story for some research and combat. LOL
Great thanks

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6. Great research

Txsharon said:
"Please note: HB 3328 does not REQUIRE disclosure of fracking chemicals. It allows industry to claim their chemicals as trade secrets without third part challenges. Industry gets to claim transparency without being transparent."

We need to put some teeth in this bill.

[sonias]

7. And she can be trusted to do great research on this

She's been on top of this issue for many, many years.

I don't think the law will go far enough, but in Texas you never get what you want or need straight up from the Lege. You can only make incremental progress. The gas industry is "on board" with the bill, so you know it has no teeth. If it did have real teeth they would be opposing it tooth and nail.

And more to the problem TCEQ is still not going to be of any use even with this minimal bill and neither is the Railroad Commission.

It's going to take the residents of this area to band together and sue these companies. Problem is many of them are making money from the leases and it's not until there property is ruined and they can no longer sell their land, that they want collective relief.

:shrug:

[sonias]

8. The Welfare Queens of Texas - (The GEs of Texas)

To add insult to injury those gas companies were given tax breaks to frack and continue to get them!

D Magazine 3/23/11
The Welfare Queens of Texas
Homeowners pay high taxes while some favored businesses pay none at all.

(snip)
These and hundreds of other special favors are threaded though the Texas tax code. In 1989, for example, the state created an exemption designed to encourage high-cost drilling in the Barnett Shale. The tax break must have worked. By 2009, there were 13,785 producing wells. The independents who first explored the field and sold out to major out-of-state energy companies are millionaires. But an exemption designed to spur that initial exploration still remains in the tax code, costing the state nearly $1 billion a year.

Oil and gas in Texas are subject to a severance tax. These natural resources are “severed” from the land and from use by future generations. Once it’s out, it’s gone. Strangely, though, coal is not subject to a severance tax, even though its extraction causes environmental damage and public health consequences. Coal owners are not even required to report on their coal’s value. As the House Ways and Means Committee recently noted (dryly), “When Texas power plants buy Wyoming coal, a portion of an individual’s electricity payment is exported to finance Wyoming’s state government.” It estimates that a tax on coal would bring in $70 million a year.

:mad:

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9. 25% oil royality

Then add in the royality fee for deep water oil that GWB forgot to put in the energy bill in 2005. That 25 % royality is billion of dollars we lost and we are having to carry the load for big oil.

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10. Same Sharon?

http://earthblog.org/content/texas-hydraulic-fracturing-disclosure-bill-inadequate

[sonias]

11. Yes - same one

:kick:

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12. Thanks again sonia,

I love having this place to access, post, store, and gather information for my battle with the RWs. They are sure fighting over Perry. Dang perry crimes are easy to find and all over the place. Our little secret!!!

[sonias]

13. Get the frack out of here!

Southlake Journal 4/5/11
'Fracking' signs causing a stir in Southlake

SOUTHLAKE — An f-word is being hurled in the debate over gas drilling, and the city is being asked to play language police.

Signs have popped up in posh neighborhoods proclaiming "Get the frack out of here" and "Don't frack with me."

That's offensive to some people, and complaints have poured into City Hall, Mayor John Terrell says.

But there's little the city can do if the signs are on private property, he told council members at a meeting last week. "We cannot regulate the content of these signs based on freedom of speech, which is protected under the First Amendment," Terrell said.

Get the frack out of here! I love it! Honestly Southlake people, you would rather deal with contaminated water and lower property values so you stay silent? And a little creative first amendment speech gets you riled up? :crazy:

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14. Not

In my backyard LOL:evilgrin:

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15. Texas hydraulic fracturing disclosure bill is inadequate

Texas hydraulic fracturing disclosure bill is inadequate
Submitted by Sharon Wilson on Wed, 03/23/2011 - 09:02
in disclosurelegislatureregulationTexas
State Rep. Jim Keffer of Eastland, chair of the Texas House Committee on Energy Resources, last week introduced a bill to require limited disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells. Since Texas currently has no disclosure requirements, we’d like to be able to say HB 3328 is a step forward – but we can’t.

Why? Because, as Jim Hightower says, “The water won’t clear up until we get the hogs out of the creek.”

The hogs in this instance are the oil and gas industry, which helped write the bill. Unsurprisingly, it does little to protect Texans’ right to know about chemicals that may contaminate their drinking water, but bends over backwards to protect the industry’s interest in keeping its fracking formulas secret. The bill appears to be written largely from the perspective of industry and without much consideration for the landowners whose problems it is ostensibly trying to solve.

http://earthblog.org/content/texas-hydraulic-fracturing-disclosure-bill-inadequate

[sonias]

16. Get the hogs out of the creek

How do you get the hogs out of the creek when the state is feeding them corn in the creek? (subsidies via tax breaks) :mad:

[plumbob]

17. Good lord! making business tell what poison they're putting in

our water is Communistic nanny-statism!

Just drink it and shut up!


The nerve of some people!

[sonias]

18. Frack off!

I know you're kidding. Me too - about the "frack off" part. :rofl:

[plumbob]

19. I know. If we don't laugh, then tears will be our only logical reaction.

:evilgrin:

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20. The Convoluted Path of Natural Gas Pipelines

Published on: Thursday, April 07, 2011
It's an axiom: A straight line is the shortest, most efficient way to get from point A to point B. But where natural gas pipelines are concerned, the most direct route may not the best. There may be homes, schools, churches, and businesses dangerously close to high-pressure gas lines. Yet cities in Texas have very little say over the routing of pipelines. Companies wield the power of eminent domain and can basically lay pipe wherever they like.

A legislative odd couple from the Barnett Shale – Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, and Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller – are trying to remedy the problem. Their co-authored bill would give cities the power to regulate gas pipelines within their city limits.

With the rapid growth of hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as ‘fracking’, new gas pipelines are cropping up across Texas, especially in the Barnett Shale, a 23-county region that includes urban and suburban Fort Worth. Many new pipelines are located in residential areas, where the fallout from an explosion (see San Bruno, California) could be devastating.
>>>>>>>>>>
http://www.texasobserver.org/component/k2/item/17677-the-convoluted-path-of-natural-gas-pipelines

[sonias]

21. Rein them in!

Cities should absolutely have the power to keep these dangerous lines out of the path of residential neighborhoods, schools, hospitals etc.

:thumbsup: