ECMC disclosure status

1. Overview of the New System
2. How Disclosures Are Produced
3. Colorado vs. FracFocus: What’s Different?
4. Open-FF’s Role: An Eye on the Data
5. Disclosure Status: Is the Law Being Followed?

Overview of the New System

For years, communities near oil and gas operations in Colorado and across the nation faced uncertainty about the chemicals being injected into the ground. Concerns over public health and environmental impacts, especially regarding materials like ‘forever chemicals’ or PFAS, led to a demand for greater transparency. In response, Colorado passed a landmark law, HB22-1348, in 2022. This legislation marked a significant shift, requiring full public disclosure of all chemicals used in underground oil and gas operations and banning the use of PFAS, aiming to provide unprecedented transparency and protection for Colorado residents. In addition to this, protections for intellectual property (that is, trade secret formulas) are built into the structure of the disclosure system.

• Key Points:
  • Why it was created: Prompted by concerns about toxic substance exposures and the historical lack of full disclosure, particularly regarding “trade secrets” and PFAS chemicals. It aimed to close reporting gaps and ensure public access to information about all chemicals used underground, not just fracking fluids. It also explicitly banned the use of PFAS.
  • What it covers: Requires public disclosure of all individual chemicals used underground in oil and gas wells (including drilling, not just fracking) with no exceptions for trade secrets. Also bans PFAS.

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How Disclosures Are Produced

Unlike previous disclosure systems, Colorado’s new law outlines a clear, multi-tiered disclosure process that includes state involvement. It starts with the manufacturers and providers of chemical products, who must provide comprehensive ingredient lists to the state’s Energy & Carbon Management Commission (ECMC). Next, well operators report which of these products they’ve used at specific well sites, including crucial details like quantities and location. The ECMC then plays the critical role of reviewing, compiling and publishing this information on a public website. An additional component is the mandatory declaration from all parties that no intentionally added PFAS chemicals are present, a key step towards addressing the ‘forever chemical’ concern.

Key Points:

• Chemical Product Manufacturers/Providers: Required to disclose products and their ingredients to the ECMC.
• Well Operators: Required to disclose to the ECMC which of the products were used in underground operations at each well site, along with API unique identifier, and quantities.
• ECMC’s Role: Must match products used at the well site with the ingredient lists on file and publicly disclose the list of chemical ingredients used. While this public disclosure does not link ingredients to specific products (to protect “formulas”), all ingredients used should be on the published list. Disclosures are generally required within 150 days after an underground operation begins.
• PFAS Declaration: Both chemical product disclosers and well operators must declare that the chemical product contains no intentionally added PFAS.

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Colorado vs. FracFocus: What’s Different?

For years, FracFocus has served as the primary, albeit imperfect, national repository for fracking chemical disclosures. While initially a big step towards transparency, it has significant limitations, most notably the widespread use of ‘trade secret’ exemptions that kept critical chemical information hidden and the generation of chemical lists from incomplete sources. Colorado’s new system was specifically designed to overcome these shortcomings. By unequivocally banning trade secret masking for downhole chemicals and expanding the disclosure mandate beyond just fracking to all underground operations, Colorado is setting a new standard for public transparency in the oil and gas industry.

Key Differences

Feature/Aspect	FracFocus	New Colorado System (HB22-1348/ECMC)
Trade Secrets	Allows for extensive “trade secret” masking, hiding specific chemical identities.	Explicitly prohibits trade secret masking for chemicals used underground.
Source of Chemical List	Primarily from Safety Data Sheets which is often abbreviated.	From the product’s manufacturer or a supplier that knows the entire list.
Scope of Disclosure	Primarily focuses on chemicals used in fracking.	Requires disclosure of all chemicals used in any underground oil and gas operation, including drilling and other activities.
Compliance & Enforcement	Voluntary in some states, often less stringent enforcement.	Mandatory under Colorado law with potential for significant penalties for non-compliance.

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Open-FF’s Role: An Eye on the Data

Open-FF participated in a May 2025 report that assessed the disclosure response to the 2022 law. We concluded that disclosure was quite slow to start. In the process of coming to grips with what was disclosed and how it compared to reports in FracFocus, we developed some data tools that allowed us to explore the difference and uncover insights.

We anticipate a few phases to this work. In the first phase, we sought to document how well companies were complying with the basic act of submitting a disclosure when it is required. While we continue that work, in the second phase – where we are now – we are exploring and highlighting the kinds of insights we can gain from the new disclosures. These will likely include a more complete list of chemicals used but also might point to limitations of either FracFocus or the new ECMC system. Such insights could be used to improve accuracy and transparency. Later phases will include improving accessibility to the data and providing meaningful interpretation of the hazard profiles of chemicals. We welcome suggestions of resources we could develop that could be useful to you or your community.

Important Note: We emphasize that the data here is based on Open-FF’s analysis of publicly available information.

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Disclosure Status: Is the Law Being Followed?

The success of Colorado’s new disclosure system hinges on compliance from the oil and gas industry. This section provides a regularly updated snapshot of how well the law is being followed. While the intent of HB22-1348 is clear – full transparency with no trade secrets – our May 2025 analysis of the data revealed significant gaps in disclosure. We track these numbers to provide you with an accurate picture of the current state of affairs.

Key Metrics for compliance for fracking chemicals

(Click in the frame to scroll through the up-to-date document)

Timeline overview

Map of well pads

(This map was last updated in early Feb, 2026)

Sites of known fracking and their disclosures

Based on disclosures to FracFocus, we know many Colorado sites have been fracked within the law’s timeframe. Each circle in plot below represents a well pad, operated by the company indicated on the horizontal line and plotted by the fracking date reported in FracFocus. The size of the circle represents the number of wells on that pad. If the circles are filled with blue, disclosures have been made for that pad at ECMC. If the circles are empty, no disclosure has been made to the ECMC website. The vertical line is the publishing deadline as of the day of the update, so all circles to the left of the vertical line should be filled.¶

As of this date, almost all companies have submitted disclosures for the fracking chemicals for wells treated within the law’s time frame. Some — Verdad and Anadarko, in particular — were early disclosers. For most other companies, disclosures were published long past the deadline established by the law.

Sites of known drilling and their disclosures

We know many wells have been drilled since HB22-1348 went into effect based on records in Colorado’s well database. Each circle in plot below represents a well pad, operated by the company indicated on the horizontal line and plotted by the spud date (first day of drilling) of the wells. The size of the circle represents the number of wells on that pad. If the circles are empty, no disclosure has been made to the ECMC website. The vertical line is the publishing deadline as of the day of the update. All circles to the left of the vertical line should be filled.¶

So far, we have seen no evidence of drilling chemical disclosures at the ECMC website. (See our analysis of ECMC’s disclosures in April 2025 for more details. A comment from ECMC in mid-July, 2025 confirmed our suspicion that drilling chemicals are not being disclosed.) While it is possible that some of these wells were drilled without any chemicals, most modern drilling operations, especially those with a horizontal component, require chemicals during drilling, and therefore should be disclosed to the ECMC.

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Cover image: Map of Weld County, Colorado with wells from FracFocus, all years, enumerated. See this Data Browser page.