Compounds associated with serious health effects are among those being used to drill gas wells.

Staff and wire reports

HARRISBURG — More than two years after the start of a natural gas drilling boom, Pennsylvania is making public what environmental regulators dub a complete list of the chemicals used to extract the gas from deep underground amid rising public fears of potential water contamination and increased scrutiny of the fast-growing industry.

Compounds associated with neurological problems, cancer and other serious health effects are among the chemicals being used to drill the wells, although state and industry officials say there is no evidence that the activity is polluting drinking water.

The Associated Press obtained the list from the state Department of Environmental Protection, which assembled what is believed to be the first complete catalog of chemicals being used to drill in the Marcellus Shale. The department hopes to post it online as soon as Wednesday, according to spokesman Tom Rathbun.

It counts more than 80 chemicals being used by the industry in a process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” as it pursues the gas in the mile-deep shale.

Environmental advocates worry the chemicals are poisoning underground drinking water sources. However, environmental officials say they know of no examples in Pennsylvania or elsewhere.

“If we thought there was any frack fluid getting into fresh drinking water … I think we’d have to have a very serious conversation about prohibiting the activity completely,” said Scott Perry, the director of the department’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management.

Conrad Volz, who directs the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, said state and federal agencies haven’t done enough research to come to that conclusion.

Dr. Thomas Jiunta, a podiatrist from Lehman Township who founded the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, predicted DEP’s list would be incomplete and that it would not provide concentrations of chemicals used in fracking fluids. He referred a reporter to Theo Colburn, who has been conducting research on the effects of fracking chemicals.

Colborn, who founded The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, a Colorado non-profit that studies health and environmental problems caused by low-dose exposure to chemicals that interfere with development and function, said the list of chemicals is “the longest list (that she’s seen) provided by any government agency.”

But, said Colborn, whose degrees include pharmacy, epidemiology, toxicology and water chemistry, the list does not contain Chemical Abstract Services registry numbers, which aid in identifying the chemicals through databases. And several items on the list are classes of chemicals rather than individual chemicals.

“Glycol ethers – see, here you have a general term again. There are many glycol ethers. In our spreadsheets, you wouldn’t find anything so general,” Colborn said, scanning the list. “And Oil Mist – what is that?” she said.

Colborn also said the concentrations of the chemicals in the fracking fluids should be divulged because it’s the only way medical personnel and scientists can determine the dosage of chemicals when treating someone exposed to them or when researching the long-term effects of exposure or consumption if the chemicals ended up contaminating a water supply.

Industry advocates say the concentrations of chemicals in fracking solutions must remain trade secrets.

Many of the compounds are present in consumer products, such as salt, cosmetics, ice cream, gasoline, pesticides, solvents, glues, paints and tobacco smoke.

A decades-old technology, hydraulic fracturing was coming under increased scrutiny even before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Its spread from states such as Texas, Colorado and Wyoming to heavily populated watersheds on the East Coast has led to worries about water contamination and calls for federal regulation.

Hydraulic fracturing is exempt from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, leaving states to regulate the activity. In New York state, regulators have effectively held up drilling on the Marcellus Shale while they consider new regulations. Last year, they published a list of more than 250 chemicals that could potentially be used there.

In Pennsylvania, where approximately 1,500 Marcellus Shale wells have been drilled and many thousands more are expected in the coming years, the state is working to buttress its regulations even as rigs poke holes in large swaths of the state.

Pennsylvania assembled the list in recent months from information the industry is required to disclose and decided to prepare it for the public as public interest grew, Perry said.

Industry officials say the chemicals pose no threat because they are handled safely and are heavily diluted when they are injected under heavy pressure with water and sand into a well. Industry officials say the chemicals account for less than 1 percent of the fluid that is blasted underground.

The mixture breaks up the shale some 5,000 to 8,000 feet down and props open the cracks to allow the gas trapped inside to flow up the well to the surface.

One compound, naphthalene, is classified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as a possible human carcinogen.

The EPA said central nervous system depression has been reported in people who get high levels of toluene by deliberately inhaling paint or glue.

In its online guidelines on xylene, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cites an industrial hygiene and toxicology text that says chronic exposure to xylene may cause central nervous system depression, anemia, liver damage and more.

The chemicals are used to reduce friction, kill algae and break down mineral deposits in the well. Various well services firms make different proprietary blends of the solutions and supply them to the drilling companies, which blend them with water at the well site before pumping them underground.

In recent years, some makers of the solutions have sought to replace toxic ingredients with “green” or food-based additives. For instance, Range Resources Corp., one of the most active drilling companies in Pennsylvania, is close to rolling out a 100 percent biodegradable friction reducer, spokesman Matt Pitzarella said Monday.

Copyright: Times Leader