Fearing for the health of local medical workers, Teton County commissioners have expressed worries about the lack of information on chemicals used in gas field work in Sublette County.

The board unanimously approved a resolution last week that outlined worries about hydraulic fracturing fluids and called for action. Hydraulic fracturing is a method energy companies use to get gas from geological structures by pumping fluids at high pressure into the ground and fracturing the subsurface rock.

The resolution also urges Congress to pass a bill known as the FRAC Act that would, during a medical emergency, allow a physician or nurse access to chemical formulas used in hydraulic fracturing. Currently companies keep many of their chemical formulas secret.

Injured Sublette County workers are being treated at St. John’s Medical Center here.

U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi and U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis both indicated they would be unlikely to support the FRAC Act. Sen. John Barrasso’s office was unable to comment by press time.

Finally, the commissioners called on the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a comprehensive study of the effects of hydraulic fracturing on underground drinking water sources.

The county commissioners’ action prompted the president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming to call commissioners “a bunch of environmental wackos” in the Casper Star-Tribune.

Teton County Chairman Hank Phibbs said the board is simply asking for information so local health care professionals can better treat workers injured in Sublette’s gas industry.

“We’re really asking, ‘Please, disclose what kinds of chemicals workers may have been involved with when he comes up here injured,’” Phibbs said. “We want to protect our emergency services people, protect our health care workers and provide more effective treatment.”

Because Sublette County has no hospital, Teton County health care professionals often treat Sublette County residents and gas field workers.

Commissioner Leland Christensen said the resolution made sense.

“It just seemed like this was one of those areas where we need more information and need access to those formulas so that no additional victims are created,” he said.



Colorado concerns

County Attorney Keith Gingery said the issue came up because Teton County Public Health heard about a Colorado emergency and began to worry that a similar situation could happen here.

In a highly publicized incident in Colorado in 2008, nurse Cathy Behr suffered severe symptoms after treating an energy worker doused in hydraulic fracturing chemicals. According to an article in the online version of Newsweek, “a few days later Behr’s skin turned yellow. She began vomiting and retaining fluid.”

“Her husband rushed her to Mercy [Regional Medical Center] where Behr was admitted to the ICU with a swollen liver, erratic blood counts and lungs filling with fluid,” the story said. “The diagnosis: chemical poisoning.”

The public health board approved a resolution but felt that commissioners weighing in on the matter would make more of an impact, Gingery said. He drafted the resolution.

Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, called the Behr incident “overblown.”

“When [the gas field worker] went to the hospital, he brought that [Material Safety Data Sheet] with him and a number to call for more information,” Sgamma said. “The correct procedure was to call that number so they would know how to handle the chemicals. They failed to follow their proper procedures and never called that number on the MSDS.”

“When you look at the facts, the worker was fine,” Sgamma said. “The hospital didn’t follow their procedures and a nurse was exposed to the chemicals as well and had some reaction. Whether it was from the chemicals or something else, I don’t know.”

Nevertheless, St. John’s Medical Center spokeswoman Karen Connelly supported the commissioners’ recommendation.

“In the interest of safety, St. John’s supports full disclosure and identification of hazardous materials to which injured/ill patients may have been exposed,” she said in an e-mail. “As per St. John’s policy and process, in the absence of full disclosure and identification, we treat the patients from these industrial accidents as if they were exposed to a hazardous material until we can ascertain otherwise.”

Linda Baker, community organizer for the Upper Green River Valley Coalition, said fracking fluids are some of the only injectable industrial chemicals exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, and some Sublette County residents are worried the chemicals might be in their drinking water.

“The industry is confident that, because they are fracturing so deeply, the fluids they use can’t migrate very far in the rock,” she said.

But Baker said the aquifer in Sublette County is poorly understood, and even as industry officials make these claims, they are studying how water in the aquifer moves.

From Aug. 1, 2008, to July 31, 2009, 26 groundwater wells showed contamination with hydrocarbons: 23 industrial wells, two domestic-use wells, and one stock well, she said.



Industry resists

Still, homeowners who want to test their water wells are denied the list of chemicals for which they should look.

Baker cited several instances in which an unknown chemical has caused an explosion, including one in which a gas field worker put his clothes in a dryer and the fumes ignited, blowing up a coin-operated laundry. Facilities to store these chemicals are near residences and churches, she said.

“I have to respect and salute the effort that [Teton County commissioners] are making to protect Teton County residents,” she said. “It is absolutely timely that the county commissioners have approved this resolution because, at this point, we still have a lot to learn. Why not be proactive to protect human health and safety?”

“I’m not confident that this state has been as proactive as it could be to protect ground water and drinking water in the development of natural gas,” Baker said. “Landowners don’t know what to test for and some of them have been exposed to chemicals that have severely impacted their health.”

Sgamma said it’s important to keep the chemicals secret.

“Just like with Coca-Cola, there’s a proprietary formula that goes in the mix,” she said. “Every field has different geology, and different fluid mixtures are going to be more successful in one area than another.”

Sgamma said the data on the chemicals is kept on site in case of an accident.

“What we’re really resistant to is the regulation proposed in the FRAC Act that would institute an additional layer of regulation on top of what the states are doing,” she said. “You don’t need to put in place another onerous layer of federal regulations on top of a process that the states are already successfully regulating.”

Enzi spokesperson Elly Pickett said the senator is monitoring the issue.

“The interior appropriations bill that was recently signed into law requires EPA to do a study to determine the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water,” she said in an e-mail. “Senator Enzi thinks that on a federal level, the most appropriate action at this stage is to let that study occur before taking any further federal action.”

“He believes hydraulic fracturing is essential for making many of Wyoming’s most productive fields viable, and subjecting this practice to unnecessary regulation could hurt our state’s economy at a time when we are seeing drastic budget cuts,” Pickett said. “Senator Enzi will continue to monitor water quality issues in Wyoming, but he is not likely to support the legislation.”

Lummis said state laws are enough to regulate the chemicals.

“I am a big advocate of state’s rights,” she said in an e-mail. “Changes in federal law may not be necessary for the Teton County commissioners to obtain the information they seek regarding the contents of fracking fluid. The commissioners should start by asking the companies and state agencies for the information.”

“In 2004, the EPA reported that no evidence has been found linking the practice of hydraulic fracturing to the contamination of underground drinking water,” Lummis said. “Another such study was just authorized in the fiscal year 2010 Interior Appropriations Act and I look forward to its completion. Science should drive policy on this issue, not the other way around.”

According to Pro Publica, a nonprofit Web site for “journalism in the public interest,” the EPA in August found chemicals commonly used in fracking in water wells in Pavilion, in Fremont County. It was the first time the EPA has undertaken such a study and it found oil, gas lead and copper, the story said.