**Cross-posted from the Ground Water Protection Council

On April 11, 2013 the FracFocus system celebrated its second birthday.  During its first two years of operation, the system has been lauded as a highly effective means of providing the public with information about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.  Eleven states have already elected to use the system as their means of regulatory reporting and as many as eleven others are considering its use.   Additionally, the Bureau of Land Management is considering accepting FracFocus as the means of reporting hydraulic fracturing chemical use on federal and tribal lands. There have been over 41,000 disclosures placed in the system and nearly half a million people have visited the FracFocus.org website.

FracFocus is a demonstration that the states are taking positive action to provide the public with the information needed to make informed decisions about hydraulic fracturing.

On June 1, 2013 the new FracFocus 2.0 system will become the exclusive means for submitting reports to FracFocus.  The version 2.0 is beginning to take hold and should provide users with a more accurate and easy to use system for entering records.  With the new disclosure submission system comes a new set of record search criteria that include searches by date, Chemical Abstract Service number and ingredient (chemical) name. The new system also has the capability of allowing operators to designate registered agents to enter records for them and to allow service companies to prepare records for the operators review and submission.

These features, along with a new user class for state agencies expand the capabilities of the system and provide for the widest possible use.  In the near future we hope to provide additional capabilities to state agencies so that they can import regulatory compliance data directly into their data management systems.

In addition to advances in FracFocus here in the U.S., the system is being implemented in two provinces in Canada (British Columbia and Alberta) and is being considered for use in Europe.

With our partner, the IOGCC, we look forward to working with states and all the stake holders to insure that the FracFocus system remains the most comprehensive, publicly accessible system of providing hydraulic fracturing chemical information today, and for the future.

For further information about the FracFocus system please contact Mike Nickolaus at mnickolaus@gwpc.org