Fracking Hearing in Colorado Challenges Gas Industry and Citizens

By: Duane Craig

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas has been blamed for making western Wyoming's air dirtier during winter than Los Angeles' air, according to this article in the Houston Chronicle. The claim was brought up during a public comment session on new rules for fracking held in Colorado by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Those new rules would reduce the air pollution from fracking by 25 percent and would boost oil and gas industry profits by capturing gas that could be sold instead of being lost to the atmosphere. Industry groups aren't sure about that and want more time to study the new rules. Colorado residents contend the industry has had enough time to clean up its act, and they want action before Colorado's mountains become socked in by haze, hurting tourism and jobs related to the outdoors.

Health issues were also cited at the hearing, with the American Lung Association urging the EPA to go further and limit methane emissions more directly. Others want the wholesale burn off of natural gas, also known as flaring, to be stopped, and still others want existing facilities to fall under the new rules as well.

Supporters of the oil and gas industry said more regulation will limit exploration, thereby reducing jobs and taxes. No new perspectives there.

Cheyenne, WY Airport Cleanup Nears Final Phase

October 10, 2010 - Community residents interested in or affected by groundwater contamination at the Wyoming Air National Guard airport will meet Oct. 26 to learn about final cleanup plans.

The contaminated plume was identified more than a decade ago, according to Jane Francis, the project leader for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. It runs under Del Range Boulevard in north Cheyenne and up to Mylar Park where a barrier was installed earlier to protect Dry Creek.

Two contaminants from the airport are involved — carbon tetrachloride and TCE ([trichloroethlene]).

The latter is the same contaminant from abandoned Atlas missile sites found at the Belvoir Ranch near Cheyenne.

The Restoration Advisory Board, which includes representatives of the community, will meet at 6:30 p.m. at Hobbs Elementary in Cheyenne to talk about how to finally clean up all the contamination at the airport and whatever went under neighborhood houses, Francis said.

"A lot of work has been done on putting in monitoring wells," she said.

The 20 or 30 houses in the area were tested for vapors from the groundwater contamination plume but none was found, she said.

All the homeowners have been contacted.

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State Should Continue WY Pollution Cleanup Effort

September 28, 2010 - The potential size of the bill to clean up groundwater pollution from landfills throughout Wyoming has the attention of state lawmakers, as well it should.

State regulators estimate the tab could be as high as $225 million over the next two decades. The Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee's decision last week to form a subcommittee to analyze the potential costs was the right one, because the state needs to identify ways now to help pay for the cleanup.

The Legislature also needs to continue its work to encourage more regional landfills in Wyoming. That will reduce costs for some communities that need -- but can't afford -- to upgrade their landfills to reduce groundwater pollution. It could also go a long way toward curbing future cleanup costs.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Solid and Hazardous Waste Division has tested 76 landfills in the state as part of a 2006 directive from the Legislature that set aside $8 million to help local governments drill monitoring wells. The agency discovered that 96 percent of the landfills tested have groundwater contamination. There are 38 more landfills to be tested, including some that have been closed or in line to shut down.

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EPA Releases Results of Wyoming Water Well Testing

August 31, 2010 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigating drinking water contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming, found benzene and methane in wells and in groundwater, agency officials said.

At a community meeting with well owners, EPA officials revealed Tuesday they found low levels of petroleum compounds in 17 of 19 drinking water wells sampled, and that nearby shallow groundwater was contaminated with high levels of petroleum compounds such as benzene, according to the report.

The affected well owners were advised not to drink the water at the recommendation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and told to use alternate sources of water for drinking and cooking, agency officials said.

Meanwhile, the EPA is working with various government partners and EnCana, a natural gas company, to provide affected residents with water and to address potential sources of the contamination, agency officials said.

The study included sampling 21 domestic wells within the area of concern, two municipal wells, plus sediment and water from a nearby creek. The EPA also sampled groundwater and soil from pit remediation sites, and produced water and condensate from five production wells operated by the primary natural gas operator in the area, agency officials said.

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Chemical cleanup continues in Wyoming neighborhood

November 29, 2009 - Authorities say they are making progress on cleaning a plume of chemicals in the Mylar Park neighborhood.

Small quantities of two chemicals used to clean aircraft parts have seeped into groundwater underneath homes north of the Wyoming Air National Guard facility at the Cheyenne Regional Airport.

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Pollution an enduring legacy at old ICBM sites

October 10, 2009 - As U.S. Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural United States this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy — groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is identifying and cleaning up dozens of former nuclear missile sites in nine states.

he ICBM sites include 14 in Kansas, 10 in Nebraska, seven in Wyoming, seven in Colorado and two in Oklahoma. California, New Mexico, New York and Texas have one contaminated ICBM site each.

TCE may have polluted many more missile sites than the corps is aware.

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2 Wyoming chemical sites to get fresh look by Department of Environmental Quality

September 24, 2009 - CASPER, Wyo. - Casper is home to two sites of chemical contamination that will be re-examined this fall after more than a decade without testing.

Meredith said DEQ officials are aware of two perchloroethylene plumes in north Casper and downtown that officials have merged into a single orphan site.

Perchloroethylene is a chemical common to cleaning solvents, often used by machine shops to clean tools and by dry cleaning services.

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EPA: Chemicals Found in Wyo. Drinking Water Might Be From Fracking

August 25, 2009 - Federal environment officials investigating drinking water contamination near the ranching town of Pavillion, Wyo., have found that at least three water wells contain a chemical used in the natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing. Scientists also found traces of other contaminants, including oil, gas or metals, in 11 of 39 wells tested there since March.

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Oil Tank Spill Contaminates Wyoming Neighborhood

March 11, 2009 - An above-ground tank outside a home in the Oakwood Village mobile home park tipped over during the night, dumping more than 100 gallons. The oil washed down the street, flowed under some homes and made its way into a nearby pond.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and EMA plan to do air quality testing periodically over the next few days to ensure there is no health hazard. The state Fish and Boat Commission was also called in to monitor the spill and potential affects on wildlife.

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Looking for answers on contamination in rural Wyoming neighborhood

November 10, 2007 - EnCana Corp. has assured that its "baseline" sampling of drinking water wells in this rural community so far have yielded no cause for concern.

But local resident Louis Meeks sent a sample of his water to a New York laboratory for more stringent testing. The EEE Consulting Inc. lab found, among other pollutants, elevated levels of toxins Diethylene and Triethylene glycols, commonly used as antifreeze in natural gas production and processing facilities, according to Meeks.

This week, Meeks filled a 50-gallon tank with water from his well and pointed out shimmering white streaks of an oily substance worming in the brew.

"There's something definitely wrong with it, and we need to have them do something about it," Meeks said.

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Benzene contaminates well water in Clary Wyoming

October 3, 2007 - CLARK, Wyo. - Residents expressed concern during a public meeting Tuesday over news that benzene had been found in the drinking water well of a home adjacent to the site of an August 2006 natural-gas-well blowout.

Mel King, whose water tested positive last week for benzene, said he was happy with the response from Windsor and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

"Nobody would be pleased to have their well contaminated, so I'm not pleased about that," King said. "But we do think we had a very quick response. We knew all about it almost instantly."

King said he has been advised not to drink, bathe or wash dishes with his water.

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Contamination reaches drinking water in Wyoming

September 30, 2007 - A family in Clark is dealing with benzene in their drinking water after an energy company's testing revealed the contaminant at levels seven times the federal maximum threshold levels.

Windsor Energy LLC discovered the benzene and notified the state Department of Environmental Quality. The company has been drilling for natural gas in the area. In August 2006, a well being drilled in the Line Creek drainage blew out, causing soil and groundwater contamination.

The "plume" of contamination apparently reached a water well located on private property adjacent to the blowout site. It was the first report of contamination reaching drinking water in the small Park County community, where the blowout and its aftermath have been a major source of controversy.

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