Although I've never been to Wyoming, I do believe those who tell me it is a beautiful state. Hence, I was surprised to read about Pavillion, Wyoming. There have been many complaints about water quality there for a number of years and it so happens that the area has been drilled for natural gas for at least twenty years. In the past ten years residents have had a number of complaints, one of the more interesting being the water is black and smells of gasoline.
The EPA drilled two monitoring wells last year. Yesterday, they released basic information as to their findings; they did not interpret their findings. ProPublica has been reporting on Pavillion for a few years and has its own interpretation of the findings. As you would expect, things are not good.
Still, the chemical compounds the EPA detected are consistent with those produced from drilling processes, including one -- a solvent called 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE) -- widely used in the process of hydraulic fracturing. The agency said it had not found contaminants such as nitrates and fertilizers that would have signaled that agricultural activities were to blame.
The wells also contained benzene at 50 times the level that is considered safe for people, as well as phenols -- another dangerous human carcinogen -- acetone, toluene, naphthalene and traces of diesel fuel.
The EPA said the water samples were saturated with methane gas that matched the deep layers of natural gas being drilled for energy. The gas did not match the shallower methane that the gas industry says is naturally occurring in water, a signal that the contamination was related to drilling and was less likely to have come from drilling waste spilled above ground.
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