An Energy Department (DOE) advisory panel is slated to release recommendations for mitigating environmental and safety risks associated with hydraulic fracturing in a report expected to raise doubts that the practice's injection process poses significant risks to groundwater, deflating calls for EPA regulation under the drinking water law.
But the panel's report is expected to recommend expanded disclosure practices for both chemical constituents of fracking fluid and drilling wastewater as well as pre- and post-drilling monitoring of groundwater at well sites, according to sources familiar with the recommendations.
The report is also expected to recommend formation of a federal interagency effort to better analyze the greenhouse gas life cycle of shale gas operations in comparison to coal and other fuels. That approach that could address uncertainty of shale gas' carbon footprint in the wake of a recent study that suggested that methane releases from fracking operations may create a larger carbon footprint than coal.
The recommendations are contained in a draft report from the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) panel, which is slated Aug. 11 to release the report detailing immediate measures for mitigating safety and environmental risks associated with hydraulic fracturing. The full SEAB is expected to review the panel's draft report on Aug. 15.
A second report is due out in three months on best practices for mitigating risks.
While the panel's report is expected to detail potential risks to groundwater from drilling, casing and cementing the wells, one source familiar with the report says that a "key takeaway" from the recommendations is that the panel found that groundwater contamination risks associated with fracking are "remote."
"Contrary to the conventional wisdom, it's the drilling, and the cementing and the encasing process" that follows the fracking itself which poses the groundwater risk, the source says. "We think the target is mis-aimed."
The panel's finding is likely to inflame environmentalists seeking strict EPA regulation of the injection practice under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). A coalition of groups sent an Aug. 8 letter to President Obama urging him to use "any legal means" to block fracking operations. And the Environmental Working Group Aug. 3 released a report detailing one case, documented in a 1987 EPA report to Congress, that showed groundwater contamination from fracking injection (Inside EPA, Aug. 5).
The panel's conclusions on risks from the fracking process could be significant for EPA as well as the agency is in the midst of a massive two-year study into the drinking water risks posed by fracking operations and is also working to craft a host of policies to address, and in some cases, to permit fracking operations.
Fracking refers to the process of injecting water, sand and chemicals into horizontal wells to free trapped reserves of natural gas and oil found in deep underground shale formations. Increased use of the practice has brought huge new supplies of natural gas to power-generation markets as a cleaner-burning alternative to coal.
The injection process itself, which industry argues has been practiced safely for more than 60 years, has become a flashpoint in the debate over shale gas regulation, in large part because Congress largely exempted the practice from EPA's SDWA regulation. But environmentalists are seeking to restore EPA's authority, arguing that the technological advances that have allowed the tapping of previously unattainable supplies also require unprecedented quantities of harmful injection fluid and the horizontal drilling techniques endanger groundwater.
Environmentalists and many Democrats have increasingly called for Congress to restore EPA's regulatory authority by removing language contained in the 2005 energy law which prohibits EPA from regulating fracking injections under SDWA's underground injection control program. Earlier this year, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced legislation that would remove the exemption and allow EPA to regulate it.
But the legislation is unlikely to move and EPA is developing a host of water, waste and other policies under existing authorities to address the issue.
The sources familiar with the DOE advisory report say that while it does not specifically address regulations that DOE, EPA and other agencies should adopt, the first source notes that a number of the suggestions are clearly "relevant" to regulators.
A second source familiar with the recommendations say they should help to get "past rhetoric and on to problem solving."
For instance, the report is expected to suggest a broader mandate that companies publicly disclose all chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluid, which goes beyond requirements for FracFocus, the voluntary online registry launched by the Ground Water Protection Council and Interstate Oil & Gas Conservation Commission.
Environmentalists have criticized FracFocus for only requiring disclosure of chemicals that are mandated under Occupational Safety & Health Administration workplace safety laws.
The second source says the report includes a much "broader call for disclosure" and it goes "well beyond" FracFocus.
The panel is also recommending that broad measures be taken to ensure better information is disclosed to the public in core areas of natural gas operations, including the volume and chemical content of wastewater generated during the well injection, which can contain high levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials as well as chemical additives used in fracking.
The issue of wastewater contamination from fracking has emerged as a particularly hot topic in Pennsylvania, where EPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection have struggled to stop the practice of municipal wastewater authorities treating shale gas wastewater.
The first source says the recommendations will include measures aimed at better tracking what happens to wastewater after it is generated from the well site, so that regulators can determine whether it is being delivered to waste treatment facilities ill-equipped to treat it. The recommendations on tracking measures, similar to hazardous waste manifests under Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, likely stem from concerns that some Pennsylvania drillers are continuing to ship wastewater to publicly owned treatment works or to neighboring states that have limited ability to dispose of it.
The draft report also carves out a greater role for the State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations (STRONGER), a multi-stakeholder group created by EPA to ensure that states are doing an adequate job of regulating oil and natural gas regulations following the agency's 1988 RCRA hazardous waste exemption for the industry sector, the source says.
"STRONGER should be bigger," to encompass a broader look at different aspects of environmental regulations, including the extraction process and air emissions, and is currently underfunded, the first source says.
The source says the draft report deals with four main issues: collection and dissemination of information, steps operators and regulators can take to minimize impacts on water, air and land use, establishment of a broad-based but industry led group to facilitate best practices and research and development.
Meanwhile, a host of environmental groups have asked President Obama to issue a moratorium on the fracking process "through any legal means," saying in an Aug. 8 letter that "Despite its obvious hazards, regulation necessary to ensure that fracking does not endanger our nation's water supply has not kept pace with its rapid and increasing use by the oil industry." The letter, signed by a slew of environmentalist and public health organizations including Citizens' Environmental Coalition, Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch and Delaware River Keeper, points to "more than 1,000" instances of groundwater contamination associated with leaking of fracking fluids and methane into groundwater, refuting industry and EPA statements that a proven link between fracking and groundwater contamination has never been substantiated.
Prior to release of the report, a group of environmental health and science researchers from various universities reiterated calls for panel chair John Deutch to step down from the subcommittee, saying in an Aug. 10 letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu that six of the seven panel members have financial ties to the natural gas and oil industry. "The committee appears to be performing advocacy-based science and seems to have already concluded that hydraulic fracturing is safe," says the letter. -- Bobby McMahon & Bridget DiCosmo