E.P.A. Subpoenas Halliburton on Fracking

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November 9, 2010, 2:25 pm

By JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF

The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it had subpoenaed Halliburton for information on the chemicals it uses for hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas drilling technique involving the high-pressure injection of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to break up rock formations.
In a statement, the E.P.A. said it had made a voluntary request for the information from eight other major drilling companies, all of which had either provided the information or pledged full cooperation by early December.
By contrast, Halliburton said only that it would “endeavor to complete its response” by the end of January, according to a letter accompanying the subpoena by Peter S. Silva, the agency’s assistant administrator for water.
“E.P.A. believes that Halliburton’s response is inadequate and inconsistent with the cooperation shown to date by the other eight companies,” Mr. Silva wrote.
In a statement, Halliburton said Tuesday that it was working in a “good faith effort” with the E.P.A. but called the agency’s information request unreasonable.
“We are disappointed by the E.P.A.’s decision today,” Teresa Wong, a Halliburton spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail message. “Halliburton welcomes any federal court’s examination of our good faith efforts with the E.P.A. to date.”
The E.P.A. is conducting a congressionally mandated study on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, on drinking water supplies. A 2005 vote in Congress exempted the practice from regulation by the Clean Water Act after a 2004 federal study determined that the practice posed little threat to human health.
As hydraulic fracturing has grown by leaps and bounds, calls for greater oversight and study of the practice have intensified, however.
A 2009 Congressional spending bill supplied nearly $2 million for further study of the drilling technique and ordered the E.P.A. to carry it out. The study is expected to be finished by 2012.
The companies that have already complied with the information request or pledged their full cooperation are BJ Services, Complete Production Services, Key Energy Services, Patterson-UTI, RPC, Inc., Schlumberger, Superior Well Services and Weatherford.
The E.P.A.’s announcement came as Halliburton came under a microscope on another front, at hearings by a presidential commission on the causes of this year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Preliminary findings by the commission have raised concerns about the cement used by the company to seal the well.