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<DIV class=timestamp>April 16, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Chemicals Were Injected Into Wells,
Report Says</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per title="More Articles by Ian Urbina"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u/ian_urbina/index.html?inline=nyt-per">IAN
URBINA</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody><NYT_CORRECTION_TOP></NYT_CORRECTION_TOP>
<P>WASHINGTON — Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons
of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from
2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats. </P>
<P>The chemicals were used by companies during a drilling process known as
hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, which involves the high-pressure
injection of a mixture of water, sand and chemical additives into rock
formations deep underground. The process, which is being used to tap into large
reserves of <A class=meta-classifier title="More articles about natural gas."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/natural-gas/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">natural
gas</A> around the country, opens fissures in the rock to stimulate the release
of <A class=meta-classifier title="More articles about oil."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/oil-petroleum-and-gasoline/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">oil</A>
and gas. </P>
<P>Hydrofracking has attracted increased scrutiny from lawmakers and
environmentalists in part because of fears that the chemicals used during the
process can contaminate underground sources of drinking water. </P>
<P>“Questions about the safety of hydraulic fracturing persist, which are
compounded by the secrecy surrounding the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing
fluids,” said the report, which was written by Representatives <A class=meta-per
title="More articles about Henry A. Waxman."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/henry_a_waxman/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Henry
A. Waxman</A> of California, <A class=meta-per
title="More articles about Edward J. Markey"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/edward_j_markey/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Edward
J. Markey</A> of Massachusetts and Diana DeGette of Colorado. </P>
<P>The report, released late Saturday, also faulted companies for at times
“injecting fluids containing chemicals that they themselves cannot identify.”
</P>
<P>The inquiry over hydrofracking, which was initiated by the House <A
title="Web site" href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/">Energy and Commerce
Committee</A> when Mr. Waxman led it last year, also found that 14 of the
nation’s most active hydraulic fracturing companies used 866 million gallons of
hydraulic fracturing products — not including water. More than 650 of these
products contained chemicals that are known or possible human carcinogens,
regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, or are listed as hazardous air
pollutants, the report said. </P>
<P>A request for comment from the <A title="Web site"
href="http://www.api.org/">American Petroleum Institute</A> about the report
received no reply. </P>
<P>Matt Armstrong, an energy attorney from Bracewell & Giuliani that
represents several companies involved in natural gas drilling, faulted the
methodology of the congressional report released Saturday and an earlier report
by the same lawmakers. </P>
<P>"This report uses the same sleight of hand deployed in the last report on
diesel use -- it compiles overall product volumes, not the volumes of the
hazardous chemicals contained within those products," he said. "This generates
big numbers but provides no context for the use of these chemicals over the many
thousands of frac jobs that were conducted within the timeframe of the report."
</P>
<P>Some ingredients mixed into the hydraulic fracturing fluids were common and
generally harmless, like salt and citric acid. Others were unexpected, like
instant coffee and walnut hulls, the report said. Many ingredients were
“extremely toxic,” including benzene, a known human carcinogen, and lead. </P>
<P>Companies injected large amounts of other hazardous chemicals, including 11.4
million gallons of fluids containing at least one of the toxic or carcinogenic
B.T.E.X. chemicals — benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene. The companies
used the highest volume of fluids containing one or more carcinogens in
Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. </P>
<P>The report comes two and a half months after an initial report by the same
three lawmakers that found that 32.2 millions of gallons of fluids containing
diesel, considered an especially hazardous pollutant because it contains
benzene, were injected into the ground during hydrofracking by a dozen companies
from 2005 to 2009, in possible violation of the drinking water act. </P>
<P>A 2010 report by <A title="Web site" href="http://www.ewg.org/">Environmental
Working Group</A>, a research and advocacy organization, found that benzene
levels in other hydrofracking ingredients were as much as 93 times higher than
those found in diesel. </P>
<P>The use of these chemicals has been a source of concern to regulators and
environmentalists who worry that some of them could find their way out of a well
bore — because of above-ground spills, underground failures of well casing or
migration through layers of rock — and into nearby sources of drinking water.
</P>
<P>These contaminants also remain in the fluid that returns to the surface after
a well is hydrofracked. A recent <A
title="Read articles in The Timess series Drilling Down"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/us/series/drilling_down/index.html?ref=us">investigation</A>
by The New York Times found high levels of contaminants, including benzene and
radioactive materials, in wastewater that is being sent to treatment plants not
designed to fully treat the waste before it is discharged into rivers. At one
plant in Pennsylvania, <A title="Read the documents"
href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/natural-gas-documents-1.html#document/p416/a9943">documents
from the Environmental Protection Agency</A> revealed levels of benzene roughly
28 times the federal drinking water standard in wastewater as it was discharged,
after treatment, into the Allegheny River in May 2008. </P>
<P>The <A class=meta-org
title="More articles about the Environmental Protection Agency."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/environmental_protection_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org">E.P.A.</A>
is conducting a national study on the drinking water risks associated with
hydrofracking, but assessing these risks has been made more difficult by
companies’ unwillingness to publicly disclose which chemicals and in what
concentrations they are used, according to internal e-mails and draft notes of
the study plan. </P>
<P>Some companies are moving toward more disclosure, and the industry will soon
start a public database of these chemicals. But the Congressional report said
that reporting to this database is strictly voluntary, that disclosure will not
include the chemical identity of products labeled as proprietary, and that there
is no way to determine if companies are accurately reporting information for all
wells. In Pennsylvania, the lack of disclosure of drilling ingredients has also
incited a heated debate among E.P.A. lawyers about the threat and legality of
treatment plants accepting the wastewater and discharging it into rivers.
</P><NYT_CORRECTION_BOTTOM>
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