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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | August 28, 2023 04:25 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Katie J. Muth |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Public Disclosure of Chemicals Used in Gas Industry |
| In the near future, I will be introducing legislation that would require that manufacturers and entities in the conventional and unconventional gas and petrochemical industries publicly disclose all hydraulic fracking chemicals and other chemicals used during the cradle to grave (drilling, extracting, refining, transporting, waste processing/storage) operations. This legislation would be modeled after Colorado legislation enacted last June that requires manufacturers and users of hydraulic fracking chemicals to disclose to the state each chemical in their product and make that list of ingredients available on a publicly accessible website. Under the Colorado law, the required information includes the trade name of the chemical product, a list of the names of each chemical in the product, the estimated amount of each chemical, and a description of the intended purpose of each chemical in the formulation.Manufacturers and end users must also provide a declaration that the chemical product contains no intentionally added perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals. The EPA identified 1,084 different chemicals reported as used in fracking formulas between 2005 and 2013. Many of the chemicals identified are incredibly harmful to our environment and hazardous to public health – but we do not even have enough data to understand the potential health impacts of these chemicals. Scientists in California found that complete information about hazards and risks to humans and the environment is available for only about one-third of the chemicals used for fracking and other, similar operations in the state. A report published by Physicians for Social Responsibility earlier this year shows that since at least 2013, oil and gas companies have used more than 43,000 pounds of PFAS – a class of extremely toxic and persistent chemicals – in Texas oil and gas wells. However, gaps in disclosure rules prevent the public from knowing how widely PFAS – or other toxic chemicals – have been used in oil and gas drilling and extraction. These same operators are drilling in our towns and communities across the Commonwealth and without proper disclosure, our residents are unknowingly being exposed to highly hazardous substances either directly or through contamination in groundwater and well water. Current Pennsylvania law only requires disclosure of chemicals at the operational level which allows drilling companies to conceal the full list of harmful chemicals polluting our environment and ruining drinking water supplies for their own profitability. Although the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) has the regulatory authority to require full disclosure of chemicals used in extraction operations, they have not consistently exercised that authority in the past, which has led to drinking water contamination and harmful impacts to public and environmental health. I hope that you join me in protecting Pennsylvania families and ensuring accountability and transparency of all gas and petrochemical entities in the Commonwealth by cosponsoring this important legislation. |
Introduced as SB997