Secrecy Loopholes

The article refers to a study conducted by the EPA, which analyzed a set of seven samples of air pollutants collected throughout the town of DISH in August 2009 and found that benzene was present at levels as much as 55 times higher than allowed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality . Xylene and carbon disulfide (neurotoxicants), along with naphthalene (a blood poison) and pyridines (potential carcinogens) all exceeded legal limits, as much as 384 times levels deemed safe . In order to consider the regulations on the chemical use, an article called “Secrecy Loophole Could Still Weaken BLM’s Tougher Fracking Regs” by Lisa Song was considered. According to her, the US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has
This authorizes oil and gas drillers exclusively to inject known hazardous materials unchecked directly into or adjacent to underground drinking water supplies. The exemption is commonly known as the Halliburton loophole, because it was inserted in the 2005 energy bill at the direction of vice president Dick Cheney, former chief executive of Halliburton, the company that invented the fracking process. Later, in 2011 the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2011 was introduced in both houses of Congress . The Act was supposed to close the Halliburton loophole and amend the Safe Drinking Water Act and regulate fracking. In addition, it would mandate the full disclosure of chemicals used in fracking fluids. In a movie called Gasland, which was considered in order to see how the opinion of the general public could be formed, there was an interview with Weston Willis, who was not speaking on behalf of the EPA, although he works for the EPA was revealed that the chemicals used are kept secret, the EPA can not conduct sufficient studies. This means that as long as the chemicals are kept secret, scientists can not state with certainty that hydraulic fracking is not environmentally