Proprietary fluids green and spewing:Updated below

Relax,it concerns proprietary information and hydro fracturing.Last winter I ran up against a puzzle when trying to find out what exactly the oatmeal like slurry spread on roads by the Vermont State Highway Dept as an ice melting agent contained .Recently I came across a press release about a company that has been nominated to win a small business award .The company’s name was Dirt Glue .Intrigued by that name and concept I checked out the website. I found that this business supplies a product that stabilizes soil and prevents dust from forming. Dirt Glue! Great name, great concept. But search as I might I could not find what the stuff might contain.

These products may be perfectly safe or not, my point is that it is next to impossible to find out with any clarity what they are made with. The contents are proprietary information, genuine real life secret formulas. Allegedly competitors would have an unfair advantage if the ingredients were publicly known.
Here is a story that is unrelated to the Dirt Glue and road slurry save by the fact that it involves another compound of unknown contents .In this case however cows have died apparently after contact with it.

ProPublica reports sixteen cattle dropped dead in a northwestern Louisiana field this week after apparently drinking from a mysterious fluid adjacent to a natural gas drilling rig, according to Louisiana's Department of Environmental Quality and a report in the Shreveport Times. At least one worker told the newspaper that the fluids, which witnesses described as green and spewing into the air near the drilling derrick, were used for a drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. But the company, Chesepeake Energy, has not identified exactly what chemicals are in those fluids and is insisting to state regulators that no spill occurred.
The problem is that both Chesapeake and its contractor doing the work Schlumberger, say that a lot of these fluids are proprietary, said Otis Randle, regional manager for the DEQ. "It can be an obstacle, but we try to be fair to everybody," he said. "We try to remember that the products they use are theirs and they need them to make a living."

Hydraulic fracturing -- a process in which water, sand and chemicals are pumped deep underground at high pressure to break rock and release natural gas -- is controversial because of the secrecy surrounding the fluids and because the process is exempted from protections of the Safe Drinking Water Act and thus from regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress is currently considering legislation to address these issues out of concern that fracturing, and the fluids and waste that are part of the process, may be contaminating drinking water in several states.
Scientists at the EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey have told ProPublica that it's difficult for them to assess the environmental risks posed by hydraulic fracturing chemicals because the companies that use them won't release the exact names and amounts of the chemicals. The energy service companies, including Halliburton and Schlumberger, say that disclosing that information would put them at a competitive disadvantage, and they insist the fluids are safe. Some information about the materials is made available through Material Safety Data Sheets, which can provide cursory medical advice for workers exposed to the chemicals.
also at Green Mountain Daily


Toxic Brew?

Of the 300-odd compounds that private researchers and the Bureau of Land Management suspect are being used, 65 are listed as hazardous by the federal government. Many of the rest are unstudied and unregulated, leaving a gaping hole in the nation’s scientific understanding of how widespread drilling might affect water resources.

Industry representatives maintain that the drilling fluids are mostly made up of non-toxic, even edible substances, and that when chemicals are used, they are just a tiny fraction of the overall mix. They say that some information is already available, and that releasing specific details would only frighten and confuse the public, and would come at great expense to the industry’s competitive business.

“Halliburton's proprietary fluids are the result of years of extensive research, development testing,” said Diana Gabriel, a company spokeswoman, in an email response. “We have gone to great lengths to ensure that we are able to protect the fruits of the company's research…. We could lose our competitive advantage.”