Fracking fluid rules expected by year's end

Hydraulic fracturing has created a boom in domestic supplies of natural gas liquids,

including propane. But environmentalists say the extraction method has

contaminated drinking water sources. (image: inhabitat.com)

Fracking fluid rules expected by year's end

By Rebecca Penty,

Calgary Herald

February 23, 2012

Alberta's energy regulator expects to have rules in place by the end of the year that would make companies publicly disclose ingredients in hydraulic fracturing fluids.

The Energy Resources Conservation Board intends to make it easy to search for any provincial well on a single website and find the fluids a company has pumped underground to force oil and gas to flow.

The move came out of a review of unconventional oil and gas rules that started in 2010 and a commitment to align some regulations with Saskatchewan and British Columbia, said Cal Hill, executive manager of regulatory development for the board.

"B.C. has moved to disclosure and we're working to follow," Hill said at a media briefing on Wednesday.

The regulator hasn't yet decided whether it will join the fracfocus.ca website that went live in B.C. last month and said it is considering making disclosure mandatory only on new wells.

Alberta has been behind other jurisdictions on forcing disclosure, a requirement that started in the United States after widespread concerns from environmental groups and landowners about the risks of water contamination and pollution they linked to rampant development of gas in tight shale formations.

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