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From EarthWorks Blog: "Several water wells were contaminated-one so heavily that it presented an explosive hazard. About 100 gas wells had been improperly constructed, in contravention of the COGCC well construction regulations. They said that the methane either came from the rocks underlying the aquifer through gas wells or natural migration."
In 2007, Garfield County was the most heavily drilled county in Colorado and was one of the most heavily drilled areas in the entire Rocky Mountain region. With some 2000 wells permitted per year, by theColorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), the area was a flurry of heavy trucks, dust, and conflict.
In addition to the usual beefs between surface owners and industry, which are proliferating throughout the shale plays today, Garfield County had seen one of the country’s first publicized cases of water contamination resulting from oil and gas activities.
An EnCana crew noticed irregularities while completing a well south of Silt, Colorado, including a drop in the level of cement they had placed between the well casing and the borehole wall. Intended to seal this annular space to keep gas from rising toward the surface, the cement drop meant that somewhere, several thousand feet below the surface a fracture was receiving cement, and possibly other fluids.
Shortly thereafter, neighbors were shocked to observe the creek on their property bubbling. Eventually ... (Continue reading A case study in how industry influence squelches the science of gas drilling impacts at Earth Works Blog Feb 9. 2012 )
"After the gas wells proliferated, not only did the instances of contamination with hydrocarbons appear, but their concentrations rose with the number of gas wells..."
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