The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday presented its latest findings in the agency’s investigation into drinking water contamination in and around Pavillion, Wyoming.
Area residents have said for years that their domestic water wells were good and clean until an oil and gas company started drilling and hydraulically fracturing or “fracking” near their homes to produce natural gas.
The latest report includes details of the chemical contamination found in water wells that were drilled by the EPA for the purposes of the agency’s investigation.
Those wells were found to be contaminated by dangerous levels of benzene and methane, as well as diesel and gasoline.
We will be publishing a report on Wednesday’s public meeting, as well as an analysis of the EPA’s most recent discoveries, on this blog in the coming day or two.
In the meantime here is a link to a PDF of the report that was presented by the EPA to the public on November 9, 2011 in Pavillion.
The EPA is continuing to recommend that affected residents in the Pavillion area do not drink their well water or use it for cooking.
Other posts you might want to see:
Hydraulic fracturing: what we’d like to achieve
UW hydraulic fracturing forum benefited from public involvement
NYT: Fracking has contaminated drinking water
NPR: Worries over water as fracking becomes pervasive
Fracking linked to water contamination
Fracking not as safe as industry claims
‘I asked them for the data and they wouldn’t share it’