Shenanigans In Wyoming -- Update -- All That Silly Talk About Banning Fracking Is Off The Table -- November 13, 2016

Do folks remember the Wyoming story -- the one about fracking water in ground table water? I've blogged about it numerous times. Google "shenanigans in Wyoming" at the MDW and you will find updates. Here's the best link, perhaps. There's even a tag a the bottom of the page, EPAWyomingShenanigans.

We now have the follow-up. From Oil & Gas Journal:

Wyoming DEQ finds no frac fluid in groundwater near Pavillion. 

Wyoming’s Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ) did not find evidence that hydraulic fracturing fluids from a nearby natural gas field rose to shallow depths for drinking water and irrigation supplies near the town of Pavillion in 2014, the state agency said on Nov. 7.

“Also, based on an evaluation of hydraulic fracturing history, and methods used in the Pavillion gas field, it is unlikely that [fracing] has caused any impacts to the water supply wells,” it added in a fact sheet accompanying the more than 80,000-page report.

WDEQ conducted a further investigation after the US Environmental Protection Agency said in a 2011 draft report that it found chemicals consistent with fracing and gas production in groundwater near the west-central Wyoming community. The draft report never implied that fracing was unsafe, an EPA official subsequently told a US House subcommittee.

In its June and August 2014 sampling of 13 water supply wells near Pavillion, WDEQ found no organic compounds, other than a pesticide and an ester used in flexible polyvinyl chloride plastics that is a common laboratory contaminant.

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Jeb Bush Was Most Likely Under The Influence

Without question, my favorite symphony:


Without question, my favorite media star in this clip: Ann Coulter. My least favorite political stars in this clip, without question, the Bush brothers, followed closely by President Obama. I never thought I would say that -- that Barack Obama is actually marginally more tolerable than the Bush brothers. After seeing this clip. And knowing that neither supported, nor voted for, the GOP candidate.

Only one problem with this clip: #NotLongEnough.

That clip morphs into this one:



Maybe we need this:

You Want It Darker, Leonard Cohen

Wyoming Shenanigans -- Update; EPA Closes The Books On This One

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it would drop an investigation that had linked contaminated water to natural-gas drilling in Wyoming, in a boost for Encana Corp. and other firms that practice the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing.

The EPA will allow the state of Wyoming to continue the investigation but doesn't "plan to rely upon the conclusions" of its previous study, the state and the agency said in a joint statement. 

Platts tweeted this:

Wyoming to take lead in study of Pavillion-area groundwater pollution, as US EPA backs away from linking it to fracking.

The tags will take you to the many other posts regarding this subject.

EPA Shenanigans in Weatherford, TX

This is an incredible story that MDW first linked on March 24, 2011, then again an update on April 12, 2011.

The story continues, this time in the Casper, WY, startribune.com.

Earlier links:

• March 24, 2011: story here.
• April 12, 2011: story here.

This whole story stinks, as we used to say, to "high heaven."

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At the March 24, 2011, link, this key paragraph:

During a hearing in January, David Poole, Range Resources’ general counsel, said the expert testimony would show the company’s gas wells were not responsible for the contamination of nearby water wells. The EPA did not send witnesses to testify at the January hearing.

In the latest story (the first link):

When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun "bubbling" like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: An oil company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.

At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.

Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination.

Does anyone truly believe that the EPA gave up another investigation for reasons cited in this article? Really? The EPA drops a case against an independent oil and gas company simply because the country threatened to withdraw from a national study on fracking? You have got to be kidding.

This is just one of many scientific articles that explains the phenomenon. This link will take you to a "quick view," but one can download the original PDF file from there. Another article here that is easier to read.

Wyoming Shenanigans Updated ... and Comment Period Extended For About Another Year

Updates

January 21, 2013: Writer suggests EPA owes Wyoming an explanation. Don't hold your breath. 

Original Post

... I assume the EPA is just hoping folks forget about this one....

Link to trib.com.

Federal environmental regulators have once again lengthened their investigation into potential groundwater contamination at a west-central Wyoming natural gas field, riling the operator in the field and area landowners, who are both fed up with the delays.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday stretched to Sept. 30 [2013] the public comment period on its investigation of the natural gas field near Pavillion, its third such extension.

The agency is trying to discover if natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing contaminated groundwater near the town. Its draft report issued in December 2011 implicated drilling and specifically hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in contamination it found in test wells.

The announcement marks the third time the agency has extended a public comment period on the investigation, which first opened Dec. 14, 2011. The period was extended in early 2012 after the agency agreed to additional tests in the area by the U.S. Geological Survey, and again in October.

EPA - Wyoming Shenanigans

Update

November 14, 2016: cased closed (?). Wyoming DEQ finds no fracking fluids in groundwater.  I'm so sick of this subject, I want to throw up.

June 19, 2013: the EPA closes the books on this one. The EPA says it will turn over the "investigation" to the state of Wyoming.

January 11, 2012: Comment period extended for the third time; extended almost another year, to September 30, 2013.

December 6, 2012: Encana calls on EPA to abandon Pavillion natural gas well tests. Paraphrasing: "the tests are flawed and the EPA needs to start over. Re-focus."

October 18, 2012: link to OGJ -- USGS did a better job testing the water at Pavillion, WY, than the EPA did -- API.  When you read the story, it sounds just like the Lance Armstrong doping controversy. The USGS did not find some of the substances that the EPA said they found in the water.

October 11, 2012: WSJ story, page A3; essentially a press release by the EPA;

September 27, 2012: Bloomberg story. Encana disputes the interpretation of these findings and this story, at ABC News.

March 9, 2012: EPA to re-test water from the various wells in Wyoming -- Reuters.

January 9, 2012: apparently Encana has had enough of this craziness; Encana is asking EPA to suspend the comment period; asking the EPA clarify its concerns and its data; and then re-open the comment period.

January 1, 2012: EPA-CYA -- Bismarck Tribune

December 27, 2011: Well, well, well, isn't this interesting. It looks like the EPA testing was flawed on so many levels. This is what I wrote as soon as I heard the original story about the EPA results. "There is so much in this short article that does not ring true with regard to fracking, but the timing is remarkable." The Dickinson Press was the first (or among the first) regional paper in the state to publish the EPA story when it broke. It will be interesting to see if The Dickinson Press prints this update.

December 14, 2011: in drips and draps, the truth is coming out.

The fracking at Pavillion involved vertical — not horizontal — wells, and many wells didn’t have the protective casing that’s commonly used to prevent chemicals from leaking into the surrounding environment.

That contrasts with most major shale gas plays across the U.S., where fracking typically occurs in horizontal wells drilled as deep as two or three kilometres underground, well below any aquifers or groundwater supplies.

Even the EPA hedged its bets. To me, it appears EPA was looking for a headline; the EPA folks are a bit like the North Koreans: when they feel ignored they do something to make headlines.

December 10, 2011: Encana agrees -- the science doesn't add up. Exactly what  I said below. I wonder if the EPA administrator was personally aware of what was going on in Wyoming?

Doug Hock a spokesman for Encana, said concerns about the pollution of drinking water "are not borne out by the facts." The EPA's test wells, he noted, were far below the depth of drinking water wells.

"At a depth where you would expect to find hydrocarbons, they found hydrocarbons. In drinking wells, they found no impacts due to oil and gas," he said.

"We've done extensive testing, the state has done extensive testing, and never have we found the effects of oil and gas in these drinking water wells," Hock said.

Original Post

From The Dickinson Press link here.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the first time has implicated fracking — a controversial method of improving the productivity of oil and gas wells — for causing groundwater pollution.

The finding could have a chilling effect in states trying to determine how to regulate the controversial process.

It is not uncommon for hydrocarbons to be found in well water. "Fingerprinting" will reveal these hydrocarbons did not come from fracking.

There is so much in this short article that does not ring true with regard to fracking, but the timing is remarkable.

For a much better report, click here. Also, here in the LA Times.