From the Durango Herald:
DENVER – State regulators took the first step Tuesday to requiring energy companies to disclose the chemicals they use in drilling gas and oil wells…
The panel has spent all summer in hearings about the new rules, which are aimed at protecting public health and the environment. It took its first votes Tuesday, but the changes won’t be official until next month, when the commission is scheduled to wrap up its rule-making…
The rule would require companies to keep an inventory of all the chemicals they use for well drilling if the substances amount to at least 500 pounds. The identity of chemicals that are trade secrets would be released only to a select few state workers and to doctors treating a person injured by chemicals…
Gas companies had argued the new rule isn’t needed because existing federal law requires them to keep Materials Safety Data Sheets with information about the chemicals. Federal law also requires companies to help doctors during emergencies…
Commissioner Jim Martin, however, said the current system has holes that the state needs to fill.
“Sometimes the MSDS sheets include that information, and sometimes they don’t,” Martin said.
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