Groups Sue EPA for Data on Toxic Fracking Chemicals

Environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an effort to get information about potentially toxic chemicals pumped into underground formations by oil and gas "fracking" operations. The industry got Congress in 2005 to block the public from knowing about these chemicals, which can end up in people's drinking water. But the inventive enviros want to use a different law to help unlock the data.

Under a law going back to 1986, the EPA keeps a public database of toxic chemical releases into the environment, called the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The 1986 law, known as the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) authorizes EPA to add new chemicals to the list of chemicals that must be disclosed. Congress shielded the oil and gas industry from public accountability in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which contained the "Halliburton loophole," named after then-Vice-President Cheney's former company, which was a major provider of fracking technology. The Halliburton loophole exempted oil and gas producers from Safe Drinking Water Act requirements that they publicly disclose the chemicals they pump underground. Cheney chaired a task force that helped draft the legislation benefitting his former firm.

Oil industry groups have opposed disclosure of toxic fracking chemicals and are critical of the environmental groups' suit. The groups are led by the Environmental Integrity Project. EPA does not currently have the fracking data, but could collect it if the groups' suit succeeds.

• "Fracking Data Sought by Environmental Groups in EPA Lawsuit," Bloomberg News, January 7, 2015, by Andrew Zajac and Mark Drajem.
• Previous Stories: WatchDog of September 11, 2014, and November 19, 2014. See also "Tracking the Fracking Boom," SEJ Special Report, October 15, 2014, by Bobby Magill.