Tagged: fracking

A group of Pavillion residents says Wyoming officials betrayed them by delaying the release of information tentatively connecting hydraulic fracturing with groundwater pollution in the area.

An Associated Press investigation shows that Gov. Matt Mead convinced the Environmental Protection Agency to delay its draft report on the contamination by a full month. Mead and other state officials used the extra time to try and debunk the findings before they could harm the oil and gas industries.

The EPA has since agreed to conduct more testing and submit to further scientific review before compiling a final report.

On Friday, the Bureau of Land Management released new proposals to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public and tribal lands.

Proponents have seen the rules as base-line protection for residents in all states, opponents see them as redundant and bad for business.

Governor Mead says he’s troubled by the rules because Wyoming’s Fracking standards are already more stringent than what the federal government is proposing.

“The problem with it is we want to have initiatives in our states that step up and be proactive on these types of issues,” says Mead. “I think that it’s a bit of disincentive when the federal government steps in and says ‘hey, we’re going to have a cookie cutter approach’.”

Western state officials took turns bashing the
federal government at a congressional field hearing on proposed
nationwide drilling rules on hydraulic fracturing.
     But Democrats on the panel Wednesday, along with some Colorado
environmental activists, insisted that health concerns around the
drilling procedure known as fracking mean there is a need for
common health and safety standards.
     Officials from Colorado, Wyoming and Utah testified before the
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Wednesday at the
Colorado Capitol. The state officials said states are better suited
than the Department of Interior at regulating drilling. They
clashed with Colorado environmentalists and a Democratic

A new independent review of the E-P-A study on hydraulic fracturing in Pavillion confirms the link between water contamination and fracking. The review was requested by a conglomerate of environmental groups.

One of the criticisms of the E-P-A study was that it was poorly conducted science, and therefore, put forth unreliable conclusions. But the hydrologic consultant who did the review, Tom Myers, says the E-P-A did goodwork.

"The EPA did a good job utilizing the data that they had available to them and utilizing the information that they had. I mean, they should keep studying, it and become firmer with the results, but one cannot say it is not sound science, because I certainly think it is."

This morning, the Environmental Protection Agency released federal standards under the Clean Air Act that will control air pollution from hydraulically fractured natural gas and oil wells.

This is the first set of federal standards to control air pollution from fracking.

The regulations aim to decrease air pollution caused by volatile organic compounds and other chemicals… and will also reduce the amount of methane, which is a greenhouse gas, released into the air.

Policy Director of the Natural Resource Defense Council’s Climate and Clean Air Program, David Doniger,  says the regulations are moving in the right direction.  

A Wyoming court is being asked to rule that the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has been too liberal in giving industry the opportunity to withhold what chemicals are involved in fracking.  Laura Veaton of Earth Justice says that of the 52 requests to withhold trade secrets, 50 have been granted.  Veaton says some were granted even though some companies did not comply with state requirements.

“For the commission to approve a trade secret, the law requires that a company require detailed support for its claims,” says Veaton. “ Unfortunately the commission has approved almost every trade secret request it has received, regardless of how unsupported or overly broad these trade secret requests are.”

State, tribal and federal officials have agreed to work collaboratively in Pavillion to do further sampling and collect more data in their water monitoring wells. The move is expected to push back a final report on a possible link between water contamination and hydraulic fracturing in the area until later this year.

In a statement by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, the agency explained that it would work with Wyoming, Tribes and local residents to find an affordable, long-term drinking water solution. She also said more sampling would have to be done before a final report could be issued.

At a meeting with Pavillion residents this morning, Governor Mead said he wants to continue providing people with safe water.

Pavillion is at the center of an EPA investigation about whether hydraulic fracturing has contaminated the town’s drinking water supply. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease recommended that residents refrain from drinking the water AND shower with their windows open, and as a result, area oil and gas producer EnCana, and the state of Wyoming, are now paying to have bottled water delivered to residents.

Mead says he’s hopeful that residents of Pavillion and the Wind River Tribes can come to a solution for safe drinking water.

In the wake of a congressional hearing over a draft report by the Environmental Protection Agency that links hydraulic fracturing with water contamination in the town of Pavillion, the Wind River Tribes are pushing to take a bigger role in the investigation.

“It’s critically important that we really get into the center of these discussions, that we make sure that our sovereignty and our jurisdiction is not infringed upon in any way and that we make sure that our Wind River Environmental Quality Department and our unique legal and political relationship with the United States government is upheld in a manner that supports and upholds our jurisdiction and our authority,” says Eastern Shoshone Business Council Wes Martel.

Tomorrow, the U-S House of Representatives’ Energy and Environment Subcommittee will hear about the Environmental Protection Agency’s ongoing investigation of groundwater contamination in the town of Pavillion. However, Pavillion residents say they were not invited to testify.

In December the EPA released a draft report on its three-year water contamination investigation. It indicated that ground water in Pavillion’s aquifer contains compounds that are “likely associated with gas production practices, including hydraulic fracturing.”

A federal report possibly linking groundwater pollution to hydraulic fracturing in central Wyoming is not discouraging hopes for the Niobrara oil play in the southeast part of the state.

Many are questioning the scientific conclusions of the Environmental Protection Agency findings on the technique to extract oil and gas.

But both EPA and industry representatives say the specific concerns raised in the report are not applicable to southeast Wyoming. That is because the Niobrara formation is geologically much different than the Pavillion area.

According to the EPA, water wells in southeast Wyoming's Niobrara formation usually are shallow and well away from where the minerals are being extracted.