20 years later, and half a million dollars wasted in my lawsuit, costs that courts ordered me to pay to defendant lawyers, and water testing, industry report purchasing, FOIPs and data accumulating, I still do not know what toxic chemicals Encana/Ovintiv illegally injected into Rosebud’s drinking water aquifiers, and which I bathed in and ingested for years, and breathed venting from my water taps. Even though Alberta rules of court disallow trade secrets. Pfffft. Secrets enable dirty judges and cops, rapists, pedophiles, frac’ers and charter-violating No Duty of Care regulators like AER.
… DEP regulations now require well operators to prepare and develop a site-specific Preparedness, Prevention and Contingency (PPC) plan prior to storing, using, or generating regulated substances on a well site. …
[It also provides trade secret and confidentiality protections: “Requests for confidentiality of this information will be handled in accordance with Department regulations.” …
Frac Chemical News Ignores the Bigger Fracking Picture by theenergyage, Jan 26, 2024
REALITY: “Proprietary” frac chemicals remain secrets.
But what about the BIGGER picture?
By David E. Hess | PA Environment Digest | January 26, 2024
On January 26, the Department of Environmental Protection announced it is implementing new policies that will require unconventional shale gas operators to publicly disclose chemicals they use in drilling and hydraulic fracturing earlier in the well development process through changes to their site-specific Preparedness, Prevention and Contingency (PPC) Plans.
Conventional oil and gas well operators are not covered by this new requirement even though they routinely frack their wells.
The announcement said, this “is a next step in the Shapiro Administration’s continuing work to address climate change and protect Pennsylvanians’ Constitutional right to clean air and pure water while maintaining our Commonwealth’s legacy as a national energy leader.”
While producers often list frac chemicals as being a very small percentage of what goes downhole while fracking, the actual amounts of frac chemicals and acid that are used, still result in huge volumes. Many frac chemicals are endocrine disruptors, and their exact identity (CAS number needs to be listed: “Chemical Abstract Service Number“) often remains hidden due to a “Proprietary” classification (“trade secret and confidentiality protections”).
…
“As Attorney General and now as Governor, I have listened to chosen to hoodwink Pennsylvanians concerned about their health and safety – and I am delivering on the promise I made to frac’ers to protect toxic company secrets while befuddling the poisoned and harmed them to secure these protections,” said Gov. Josh Shapiro.
…
EDITORIAL COMMENT FROM THE ENERGY AGE:
So what has really changed? Nothing!
Without providing a CAS number for every frac chemical, it’s still not “full disclosure.” This FracFocus report from 2014 shows how many of these frac chemicals are considered “Proprietary” and that classification will continue to keep them secrets, even under the new regulations. …
Frac chemicals are largely kept secret in Canada too (just like judges keeping their dirty doings and deliberations secret):
Refer also to:
2017: To Honour the Fallen on Remembrance Day: Make public AER’s secret “D79 Abandoned Well Methane Toxicity Preliminary Assessment” & Appendix 2 by Alberta Health, Admitting “Acute-Life threatening” risks & “Neurological effects”