LANSING ? Michigan House Democrats want to see action on a package of bills that would place a two-year moratorium on the practice of hydraulic fracturing in Michigan and force the companies to disclose what chemicals they will use in the process.

The final bill in the package (HB 5565 , HB 5151 , HB 5150 , HB 5149 and HB 4736 ) was introduced Tuesday, and the rest have been sitting in various committees.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been linked to a variety of environmental problems around the country, Democrats said, and want to make sure that doesn’t happen in Michigan.

Since the 1960s, more than 12,000 wells have opened through fracking in the state and most of those are currently producing, said Hal Fitch, chief of the office of oil, gas and minerals for the Department of Environmental Equality.

In that time, there has only been one incident related to fracking. In February 2011, there was a small surface leak at a well in Benzie County where fracking was used. It was cleaned up and there was no impact to groundwater, state officials said.

Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) said while fracking isn’t new to Michigan, what is new is its prevalence and scale. He said companies are drilling deeper to find new pockets of natural gas.

Most importantly, Democrats say the state needs to know what chemicals the companies are pumping into the ground.

When “someone is injecting poisonous chemicals into the ground,” under the water table, the public has a right to know what chemicals are being used, Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) said.

The companies do not have to list those chemicals under current law, but do have to post data sheets at the well site that list the chemical category and potential environmental risks. Mr. Fitch said the DEQ recently began posting those data sheets online as well.

Irwin said those data sheets are inadequate because there are loopholes that allow some chemicals to not be listed.

Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) said there are nine other states with such laws, including Texas.

At the same time the Democrats were conducting their press conference, Governor Rick Snyder told those attending his online town hall that fracking has worked in Michigan. Snyder called natural gas one of the state’s great opportunities.

“Michigan has been doing fracking for decades in some fashion,” he said. “We haven’t had a problem with any of them because we have tough regulations in our state and we’ve followed through on our regulations.”

Irwin said another key component of the package would be to put the onus on the companies to prove they did not cause harm to residents in the event of a spill or in claims of contamination.

He said in other states, residents have had to hire expensive experts to prove the fracking fluid in their water came from the companies drilling in the area.

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