Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) and 14 other House Democrats have called on Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to strike a balance among oil and natural gas development, the environment, and the public health in the department’s final hydraulic fracturing (fracking) rule.

In a letter Tuesday to Jewell, Polis’ specifically recommended four changes to the proposed fracking rule to strengthen environmental and public health protections, including: protections for certain sensitive areas from drilling and buffers that ensure that drilling takes places safe distances from homes, schools and water supplies; a requirement that operators disclose their chemical fluids prior to fracking; updates to well construction requirements; and a ban on pits for storage.

States like “Wyoming already require advance disclosure of fracking fluids and have not seen a decline in industry activity,” Polis said.

“I have long advocated for greater disclosure requirements, and I am hopeful that the BLM [Bureau of Land Management] will advance a rule that better mandates such requirements so citizens will know what chemicals are in their water and air,” Polis said. “While this rule is a step in the right direction, Colorado [Polaris’ home state] gets an ‘F’ for establishing a framework for fracking that protects homeowners and families. The state legislature needs to act on common-sense measures.”

The comments of Polis and other House lawmakers are in response to BLM’s proposal to regulate fracking at the federal level, which the agency released in May (see Shale Daily, May 20).

The lawmakers cited some of the shortcomings of the proposed rule. “Although the proposed rule offered new tests for mechanical integrity, it failed to update its well construction requirements. Improper well construction and mechanical well failures and attendant gas migration have…resulted in contamination events in a number of states,” including Wyoming, Colorado, West Virginia and Ohio, they said.

“Although the proposed rule bans the use of unlined pits for storage, the rule should go further and ban the use of open air pits entirely. States like New Mexico and North Dakota are moving away from the use of pits because open air pits may leak or spill, leading to ground and surface water contamination and wildlife deaths,” the lawmakers said.

In addition to Polis, other signatories to the letter were Paul Tonko of New York, Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia, Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania, Henry Waxman of California, Lois Capps of California, Jim Moran of Virginia, Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Jared Huffman of California, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Barbara Lee of California, Mike Quigley of Illinois, Niki Tsongas of Massachusetts, and Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire.