The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans on Wednesday to begin developing rules requiring makers and processors of certain chemical cocktails used in the oil and gas industry to maintain and submit records on those chemicals.
The agency, which said it plans to "initiate a dialogue process to seek public input" on the design and scope of the reporting requirements, would also be ordering the companies to submit health and safety studies related to the various chemical cocktails they produce.
The move was welcomed by industry critics seeking more federal oversight of the contentious practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" -- a process that involves the injection of a mixture of water, sand and various chemicals deep into a well bore in order to crack open rock formations and stimulate the release of hydrocarbons. Hydraulic fracturing has exploded as companies have deployed it to access vast and previously unreachable deposits of natural gas in states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Texas.
"We're delighted, and this will get us a lot more of the kind of information that we need so the public can do a reasonable assessment of the gas development happening around them," said Deborah Goldberg, an attorney with the group Earthjustice, which was among more than 120 environmental organizations that had filed a petition with the EPA in August. The petition requested that the agency issue reporting and toxicity testing rules, under the Toxic Substances Control Act, for a variety of chemical mixtures used by the industry.