Texas has enacted legislation requiring its Railroad Commission (the regulatory authority that regulates the oil and gas industry in Texas) to develop regulations for the mandatory disclosure of the composition of water used in hydraulic fracturing on a well-by-well basis.  The new law, which is reported to be the product of negotiations involving the oil and gas industry, environmental groups, and legislators, directs that this information be posted on the internet.  Companies can request that any particular chemical be exempted from disclosure if the identity of the chemical is a trade secret.  The initial decision whether to grant an exemption will be made by the Railroad Commission, but a decision by the Railroad Commission to grant an exemption can be appealed by the landowner on whose property the well is drilled, by an adjacent landowner, or a state agency other than the Railroad Commission.

The legislation gives the Railroad Commission until July 1, 2013 to finalize regulations, but Commission members have stated that they will begin the process of developing regulations soon, and one Commissioner has said he will push to finalize regulations a year early, by July 1, 2012. 

Texas' mandatory disclosure program is significant because Texas has drilling in several shale plays -- the Barnett, the Eagle Ford, the Permian Basin, and the Haynesville (the Haynesville Shale is mostly in Louisiana, but extends into East Texas).  Further, Texas has far more ongoing drilling than any other state.  The most recent rig count by Baker Hughes shows that 843 oil and gas drilling rigs are operating in Texas.  This is nearly half of the total of 1854 rigs operating in the entire United States, and is far more than the number operating in any of the three states with the next largest totals (170 are operating in Oklahoma; 166 are operating in Louisiana; and 161 are operating in North Dakota).

When Texas' regulations are put in place, the state will join Wyoming and Arkansas in requiring disclosure.  Both Wyoming and Arkansas enacted regulations last year that require disclosure of chemicals used in fracking water on a well-by-well basis.  Wyoming and Arkansas require disclosure of all chemicals to regulators, and provide that such information generally will be made available to the public.  But the regulations in both states allow companies to request that particular chemicals whose identities constitute trade secrets be exempt from disclosure to the public.  The Wyoming and Arkansas regulations were discussed in my blog post dated March 14, 2011.

In addition to mandatory disclosure programs, two groups of state regulators -- the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission -- have organized FracFocus, a website where several companies are voluntarily posting the composition of fracking water on a well-by-well basis.  Visitors to the website can search for wells near where they live (or in any other location), or by other criteria, such as well operator.  The website also contains other information on hydraulic fracturing.  FracFocus and certain company-specific voluntary disclosure initiatives were discussed in my blog post dated April 18, 2011.