Is your state reporting chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing? Ten states -- Colorado, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, North Dakota, Montana, Mississippi, Utah, Ohio and Pennsylvania -- are required to report the information to FracFocus, which makes it available to the public. But a look at Colorado and Pennsylvania by Mike Soraghan of Environment and Energy News revealed that more than 20 percent failed to report the information on time in 2012.
No fines were levied in Colorado or Pennsylvania, and the only state to have penalized a company was North Dakota, which fined a company $300,000 for a December incident, after the state found the firm hadn't filed with FraFocus, reports Soraghan. But finding out whether a company is late takes some groundwork, since FracFocus doesn't list the information on its website. That information is available from state agencies.
The reports are supposed to be filed within 60 days of a well's completion. Of the 684 reports filed in Pennsylvania between May 1 and Dec. 31 of last year, 24 percent were late, and of the 1,440 filings from April 1 to Dec. 31 in Colorado, 21 percent were late, reports Soraghan. Earthworks environmentalist and lawyer Bruce Baizel told Soraghan, "That's lousy. You're not enforcing. If you stood up and said, 'We think this regulation will get 80 percent compliance,' the commissioners would laugh at you."
Soraghan notes that Harvard Law School's Environmental Law and Policy Program said states shouldn't use FracFocus because it "fails as a regulatory compliance tool." (Read more) Still, it can be a good tool for journalists; Soraghan advises that the data are available on Excel spreadsheets from state agencies.
No fines were levied in Colorado or Pennsylvania, and the only state to have penalized a company was North Dakota, which fined a company $300,000 for a December incident, after the state found the firm hadn't filed with FraFocus, reports Soraghan. But finding out whether a company is late takes some groundwork, since FracFocus doesn't list the information on its website. That information is available from state agencies.
The reports are supposed to be filed within 60 days of a well's completion. Of the 684 reports filed in Pennsylvania between May 1 and Dec. 31 of last year, 24 percent were late, and of the 1,440 filings from April 1 to Dec. 31 in Colorado, 21 percent were late, reports Soraghan. Earthworks environmentalist and lawyer Bruce Baizel told Soraghan, "That's lousy. You're not enforcing. If you stood up and said, 'We think this regulation will get 80 percent compliance,' the commissioners would laugh at you."
Soraghan notes that Harvard Law School's Environmental Law and Policy Program said states shouldn't use FracFocus because it "fails as a regulatory compliance tool." (Read more) Still, it can be a good tool for journalists; Soraghan advises that the data are available on Excel spreadsheets from state agencies.
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