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GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Regional activists want to know how Garfield County officials feel regarding the possibility that gas drilling activities may be polluting groundwater in western parts of the county, and they plan on finding out at a Sept. 8 meeting of the board of county commissioners in Glenwood Springs.
Representatives of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, a volunteer group of industry watchdogs, and the Western Colorado Congress, a nonprofit that has been involved in numerous Western Slope development issues, will be at the meeting to talk about the impacts of gas drilling on the county's communities and residents.
Among the subjects sure to come up, organizers said, are recent findings by the Environmental Protection Agency that gas drilling activities in central Wyoming may have polluted the wells of area ranchers with chemicals used in a practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or “frac'ing.”
Frac'ing, a drilling practice that the gas industry says is crucial to recovering hard-to-reach gas and oil pockets deep underground, involves the injection of large quantities of sand, water and chemicals into a well after it is drilled. The high-pressure compound fractures the subterranean strata and releases the gas or oil to flow to the surface.
At least one local activist said on Friday that he plans to ask the EPA to conduct the same kind of testing on water wells in Garfield County.
“I hope that this is the beginning of many such investigations in Wyoming and Colorado,” said Randy Fricke, a former chair of the GVCA. “I will be contacting EPA to expand this program into Colorado, especially in the heavily drilled areas of the Piceance Basin. Now, other states such as New York and Pennsylvania are seeing the same impacts of gas drilling that we have out here. Finally, we are now beginning to uncover the deadly poisons that the oil and gas industry are leaving underground to poison our water supplies.”
The discussion on Sept. 8, scheduled for the BOCC's mid-morning time slot, will include presentations by citizens, scientists and others, according to Leslie Robinson, a member of the GVCA board who is familiar with the Wyoming findings.
Using water samples collected in March and May from wells in the area around Pavillion, Wyoming, the EPA found methane gas, hydrocarbons, lead and copper in a well owned by rancher Louis Meeks.
Nearby, according to published reports, are gas wells operated by the EnCana gas drilling company, which also is active in the Garfield County gas field. But EPA officials were careful to note that some of the chemicals found in the water could come from entirely different sources than the gas wells.
A spokesman for EnCana told the Post Independent that his company has not done any frac'ing of new wells in the Pavillion area since 2007, and stressed that the EPA's test results are only preliminary at this point.
The spokesman, Doug Hock, said his company has pledged to cooperate with the EPA to determine the source of the groundwater pollution.
In Garfield County, Robinson noted that the GVCA presentation will be made by county resident Tara Meixsell, who currently is working on a book about Garfield County's gas boom. Robinson said that the request to address the commissioners is at least partly due to another recent presentation to the BOCC, by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.
“What triggered this is our fear that the commissioners will believe everything that COGA says,” Robinson said, explaining, “We're not anti-frac'ing ... we really think the public should know what chemicals are being pumped into the ground. We're looking ahead to Battlement Mesa ... [where] frac'ing fluids [will be] used within half a block of residents ... who already have health issues.”
Robinson was referring to plans by Antero Resources to build up to 10 drilling pads, with up to 20 wells from each pad, within the boundaries of the Battlement Mesa, a community of mostly retirees near Parachute.
jcolson@postindependent.com
Representatives of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, a volunteer group of industry watchdogs, and the Western Colorado Congress, a nonprofit that has been involved in numerous Western Slope development issues, will be at the meeting to talk about the impacts of gas drilling on the county's communities and residents.
Among the subjects sure to come up, organizers said, are recent findings by the Environmental Protection Agency that gas drilling activities in central Wyoming may have polluted the wells of area ranchers with chemicals used in a practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or “frac'ing.”
Frac'ing, a drilling practice that the gas industry says is crucial to recovering hard-to-reach gas and oil pockets deep underground, involves the injection of large quantities of sand, water and chemicals into a well after it is drilled. The high-pressure compound fractures the subterranean strata and releases the gas or oil to flow to the surface.
At least one local activist said on Friday that he plans to ask the EPA to conduct the same kind of testing on water wells in Garfield County.
“I hope that this is the beginning of many such investigations in Wyoming and Colorado,” said Randy Fricke, a former chair of the GVCA. “I will be contacting EPA to expand this program into Colorado, especially in the heavily drilled areas of the Piceance Basin. Now, other states such as New York and Pennsylvania are seeing the same impacts of gas drilling that we have out here. Finally, we are now beginning to uncover the deadly poisons that the oil and gas industry are leaving underground to poison our water supplies.”
The discussion on Sept. 8, scheduled for the BOCC's mid-morning time slot, will include presentations by citizens, scientists and others, according to Leslie Robinson, a member of the GVCA board who is familiar with the Wyoming findings.
Using water samples collected in March and May from wells in the area around Pavillion, Wyoming, the EPA found methane gas, hydrocarbons, lead and copper in a well owned by rancher Louis Meeks.
Nearby, according to published reports, are gas wells operated by the EnCana gas drilling company, which also is active in the Garfield County gas field. But EPA officials were careful to note that some of the chemicals found in the water could come from entirely different sources than the gas wells.
A spokesman for EnCana told the Post Independent that his company has not done any frac'ing of new wells in the Pavillion area since 2007, and stressed that the EPA's test results are only preliminary at this point.
The spokesman, Doug Hock, said his company has pledged to cooperate with the EPA to determine the source of the groundwater pollution.
In Garfield County, Robinson noted that the GVCA presentation will be made by county resident Tara Meixsell, who currently is working on a book about Garfield County's gas boom. Robinson said that the request to address the commissioners is at least partly due to another recent presentation to the BOCC, by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.
“What triggered this is our fear that the commissioners will believe everything that COGA says,” Robinson said, explaining, “We're not anti-frac'ing ... we really think the public should know what chemicals are being pumped into the ground. We're looking ahead to Battlement Mesa ... [where] frac'ing fluids [will be] used within half a block of residents ... who already have health issues.”
Robinson was referring to plans by Antero Resources to build up to 10 drilling pads, with up to 20 wells from each pad, within the boundaries of the Battlement Mesa, a community of mostly retirees near Parachute.
jcolson@postindependent.com
