EPA-Approved Fracking Chemicals Include PFAS, a ‘Forever Chemical’

From an Article by Susan Phillips, The Allegheny Front, July 14, 2021

Companies that drill for natural gas in Pennsylvania have used EPA-approved PFAS or pre-cursors to PFAS in fracking operations in other states, according to a report by Physicians for Social Responsibility.

The report’s author, Dusty Horwitt, says that while he couldn’t find evidence the chemicals were used in Pennsylvania wells, Exxon/XTO Energy and Chevron are among the companies that have used it elsewhere. “We can’t be confident that we know everything that has been used in Pennsylvania,” Horwitt said.

That’s because Pennsylvania’s fracking disclosure law allows exemptions for trade secrets, and does not require drillers to disclose chemicals used to drill a well. The chemical disclosure requirements include the fracking process, which uses high-pressure water and chemicals to break up the shale rock and release the gas.

What are PFAS (per-fluoro-alkyl substances, fluorine containing complex organic compounds)?

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of 9,252 man-made chemicals, according to the EPA. They contain strong carbon-fluorine bonds that don’t break down easily in the environment, which has garnered them the nickname “forever chemicals.” The strength of the bond makes them useful for waterproofing and stain resistance. They are used to make teflon, food packaging and firefighting foam.

Some, including PFOA and PFOS, are no longer made in the U.S. But use of PFAS continues, and the chemicals have been detected at concerning levels in some water supplies, especially near military installations in Pennsylvania and across the country. Studies of some of the PFAS chemicals show a link to low birth weight, pre-eclampsia and increased cholesterol; exposure also causes impacts to liver, kidney and thyroid health.

There are no easy ways to break [PFAS] down. They are going to be with us forever.

PFAS Used in 1,200 Wells in Six States

The Physicians for Social Responsibility report, Fracking with “Forever Chemicals“, found evidence the substance was used in 1,200 wells in six states between 2012 and 2020. The group obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The American Petroleum Institute said PFAS use is limited.

“Although PFAS is not widely used in fracking and only at extremely low levels, API will continue to review available data and analyses to better understand and mitigate the use of these chemicals across the upstream segment,” API spokeswoman Bethany Aronhalt said. “We uphold long-standing procedures to transport, handle, and use chemicals safely, including well-bore integrity, chemical containment, science-based hazard assessments and other operational practices, and we will continue to use science-based measures to further protect health and safety.”

The public records PSR received included thousands of heavily redacted documents, including instances where the companies redacted their own name and chemical identification, or CAS, claiming a trade secret. The documents revealed EPA itself had questions about the approval in 2011:

“EPA has concerns that these degradation products will persist in the environment, could bioaccumulate or biomagnify, and could be toxic (PBT) to people, wild mammals, and birds based on data on analog chemicals, including PFOA and [REDACTED].”

Lack of Transparency is an Issue

The report highlights the difficulty of trying to find out information on the substances, which are often referred to differently in disclosure reports.

Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist and the former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said transparency around fracking chemicals remains an issue despite the growing epidemiological evidence of impacts like low birth weight, linked to living near fracking sites. When it comes to PFAS, Birnbaum said, it’s ubiquitous and it causes a number of health impacts, including on both male and female reproduction.

“We don’t have just one source of exposure, but we’re also finding it’s just everywhere. PFAS are useful chemicals, they are very helpful for solubilization, and to prevent sticking,” she said. “The carbon fluorine bond is extremely difficult to make, barely exists in nature and there are no easy ways to break it down. They are going to be with us forever.”

Exposure to any fracking chemicals could happen at the well site, but studies have shown that wastewater transport can pose the greatest risk.

>> This story is produced in partnership with StateImpact Pennsylvania, a collaboration among The Allegheny Front, WPSU, WITF and WHYY to cover the commonwealth’s energy economy.

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See the Report here: New Report: Fracking with “Forever Chemicals” – Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), Dusty Horwitt, July 12, 2021

PSR is proud to publish Fracking with “Forever Chemicals,” a report presenting previously unpublicized evidence that major oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, have used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or substances that could degrade into PFAS, in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for oil and gas in more than 1,200 wells in six U.S. states.

Toxic in minuscule concentrations, these man-made chemicals accumulate inside the human body and do not break down in the environment – hence their nickname, “forever chemicals.” Various PFAS have been linked by the U.S. EPA to low infant birth weights, effects on the immune system, cancer, and hormone disruption.

Gov. Wolfe needs public support to regulate the fracking industry

Letter to Editor, Scranton Times Leader, May 19, 2018

Gov. Tom Wolf has once again proposed a common sense severance tax on natural gas operations in Pennsylvania. Bill O’Boyle’s recent coverage spells out many of the benefits of taxing energy companies based on how much natural gas they produce.

The bill has bipartisan support, and Pennsylvania remains the only major natural gas-producing state that doesn’t have a similar tax on production. It could lead to billions of dollars in revenue for initiatives throughout the Commonwealth.

A progressive tax on energy companies for the natural gas they produce – using the natural resources of our state – makes sense and is a necessary step for Pennsylvania.

But make no mistake – this is not an environmental issue. This is a revenue issue.

The severance tax would be an important revenue tool for our state, but it should not overshadow or distract from key environmental issues facing Pennsylvania.

As Harrisburg debates a severance tax, essential regulations curbing dangerous methane emissions at natural gas sites remain unrealized. Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a powerful greenhouse gas and is emitted alongside other pollutants that have been linked to a host of health issues from low birth weight to asthma to heart disease. As pro-industry groups like the Marcellus Shale Coalition push to kill the severance tax and protect energy conglomerates’ bottom lines, the DEP is critically underfunded. Officials say it is “mathematically impossible” for the agency to keep up with required safe drinking water inspections.

As the debate over a severance tax heats up, Pennsylvania citizens and lawmakers cannot confuse the energy industry’s responsibility to pay its fair share in taxes with its responsibility to protect the air and water of our commonwealth and the health of our families and communities.

Joseph O. Minott, Executive Director and Chief Counsel

B. David Smith, Outreach Coordinator (412-954-8494),
dsmith@cleanair.org

Clean Air Council, Suite 300, 135 S. 19th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103

Also: Beaver Station on Oct. 16 - 20, 2017

Described by Group Against Smog & Pollution (GASP), Newsletter, September 23, 2017

Join the growing regional conversation on Wednesday, September 27 at 5 p.m. at an Opening Night Cocktail Reception for the art exhibit “Petrochemical America, from Cancer Alley to Toxic Valley.”

The exhibit was inspired by the book “Petrochemical America” by Richard Misrach and Kate Orff (New York: Aperture, 2012), which tells the story of the degradation of the Louisiana landscape and the people who live there.

This presentation features drawings from the book by landscape architect Kate Orff and SCAPE Studio alongside photography from the Photographers of the Marcellus Shale Documentary Project, audio recorded by Public Herald, and a selection of documentary films. It relates a unique narrative of the people who live in the midst of a growing web of fracking well pads, pipelines, cryogenic plants and, soon, petrochemical plants. This show is curated by Sophie Riedel in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab.

On September 27, keynote speaker Wilma Subra will share stories and photographs about the people she has served in Cancer Alley and beyond. A chemist and scientist, she has devoted the last 30 years to helping defend local communities and workers against the oil and gas industries. Described as the “Rachel Carson of Louisiana,” she is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellow “Genius Award,” recognized for helping ordinary citizens understand, cope with, and address environmental issues that come with the growth of the petrochemical industry.

Those seeking knowledge about the petrochemical industry and the impact it will have on the environment and people’s health will find this exhibit illuminating. RSVPs are required.

Learn more about this event and more by visiting the Eventbrite page.

Wednesday, September 27, Time: 5 to 8 p.m.
SPACE Gallery
812 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Clean Air Council challenges Sunoco Pipeline’s public utility status

From an Article by David Conti, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 27, 2015

Sunoco Logistics has a new legal challenge against its ability to use eminent domain to secure land for a pipeline that would carry natural gas liquids from the Marcellus shale to a terminal on the Delaware border.

The Clean Air Council and the father of one its lawyers, who lives in the proposed path of the pipeline, sued the company Thursday in Common Pleas court in Philadelphia, seeking a declaration that subsidiary Sunoco Pipeline is not a public utility and therefore cannot use eminent domain to take property through court cases. The lawsuit follows a series of court challenges in several counties along the 350-mile route of Mariner East 2 in which several property owners are resisting seizure of their land.

The Philadelphia-based environmental group says Sunoco has misstated its status as a public utility, relying on older regulatory rulings from previous pipelines. “By its reasoning, Sunoco could, 100 years from now, bulldoze the house after filing a declaration of taking,” said Clean Air Council attorney Alex Bomstein, whose father, Michael Bomstein of Delaware County, is a plaintiff in the case. “That’s simply contrary to the law.”

Philadelphia-based Sunoco Logistics says a series of state regulatory rulings support a designation it received in 2002.

“We vehemently disagree with the Clean Air Council’s lawsuit and plan to stridently defend our previously confirmed status as a public utility corporation,” said spokesman Jeff Shields. “The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the agency tasked with making the decision, has recently reconfirmed our status as a public utility corporation.”

The $2.5 billion pipeline would mostly run parallel to a decades-old line Sunoco reworked as Mariner East 1 to carry ethane, propane and butane from Western Pennsylvania shale wells to the Marcus Hook terminal near Philadelphia.

State and industry officials have cited such projects as necessary to getting gas and liquids from the abundant deep shale to lucrative markets.

The larger Mariner East 2 would connect to locations in Ohio and West Virginia, and Sunoco has said it would include points along the path at which liquids could be offloaded for use as fuel.

The council’s lawsuit claims the pipeline’s only purpose is to move the products across state lines to be exported. It said the interstate nature of the pipeline means it should be subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission jurisdiction — not the state PUC — which allows for eminent domain power for a pipeline carrying gas, but not related liquids.

“Lacking any PUC order approving the Mariner 2 pipeline, or FERC order authorizing the use of eminent domain, (Sunoco) has no basis to claim that it has a right to exercise the power of eminent domain,” the lawsuit states.

In discussing the legal challenges filed in other counties, Shields this month said the project can get the necessary public utility status “from either or both” the PUC and FERC. “They are not mutually exclusive,” he said.

Mariner East 2 will cross about 2,500 property tracts, many of which contain the Mariner 1 line. According to court records and lawyers representing property owners, Sunoco has filed about two dozen eminent domain cases to gain temporary or permanent right of way for the pipeline.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net