Thursday, May 23, 2013

FracFocus: Chemical Disclosure Registry

FracFocus is the national hydraulic fracturing chemical registry.

FracFocus is managed by the Ground Water Protection Council and Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, two organizations whose missions both revolve around conservation and environmental protection.

The site was created to provide the public access to reported chemicals used for hydraulic fracturing within their area. To help users put this information into perspective, the site also provides objective information on hydraulic fracturing, the chemicals used, the purposes they serve and the means by which groundwater is protected.

The primary purpose of this site is to provide factual information concerning hydraulic fracturing and groundwater protection. It is not intended to argue either for or against the use of hydraulic fracturing as a technology. It is also not intended to provide a scientific analysis of risk associated with hydraulic fracturing. While FracFocus is not intended to replace or supplant any state governmental information systems it is being used by a number of states as a means of official state chemical disclosure. Currently, ten states: Colorado, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, North Dakota, Montana, Mississippi, Utah, Ohio and Pennsylvania use Fracfocus in this manner. Finally, this site does not deal with issues unrelated to chemical use in hydraulic fracturing such as Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM). This topic is beyond the current scope of this site.

FracFocus is a dynamic website that will evolve and expand over time. We welcome your comments and suggestions regarding the site. You can submit a comment or suggestion regarding this website from the Ask a Question page. The chemical data presented on this site has been submitted on a voluntary or regulatory basis by the participating oil and gas companies listed on the Links page who have agreed to disclose the information in the public interest. We hope you will find this site useful and informative.

Important Notes:

1. Participating companies have agreed to post records of wells fractured after the later of the date they registered to participate or January 1, 2011. Over the first full year of operation from April 11, 2011 to April 11, 2012 the FracFocus system recorded over 15,000 disclosures from a total of 231 participating companies. During the same period the FracFocus website had been visited more than 210,000 by over 145,000 individuals.

2. Questions about the fracturing of a specific well should be directed to the company whose name appears in the header of the fracturing record.

3. The listing of a chemical as proprietary on the fracturing record is based on the “Trade Secret ‡” provisions related to Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) found on the above link .

(FracFocus)

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