Alleged gas-drilling contamination of Wyoming well water scraps EnCana sale

Alleged gas-drilling contamination of Wyoming well water scraps EnCana sale by Abrahm Lustgarten, November 29, 2012, ProPublica
The Canadian oil and gas company EnCana, which at one time held the record for the highest state fine for a gas-drilling spill case in Colorado, has been stymied in its attempt to sell a Wyoming gas field where hydraulic fracturing has allegedly contaminated groundwater. …The cancelled sale could signal difficulty for companies trying to turn over aging gas fields if there are environmental or health concerns related to their operations. … Residents had long complained of widespread water contamination and alleged that fracking was to blame. EnCana had trucked in replacement drinking water to some residents. The company faced increasing controversy when the EPA announced in late 2009 that it had found hydrocarbon contaminants in residents’ drinking water wells. The agency advised residents not to drink their water and to ventilate their homes when they showered or washed dishes. … It found benzene, along with acetone, toluene, naphthalene and traces of diesel fuel. It also detected a solvent called 2-Butoxyethanol (2-BE) that is commonly used by the drilling industry to fracture wells. It also can be used for cleanup at well sites. EnCana has maintained that the pollutants found in Pavillion-area wells occur naturally, and that drilling is not to blame. [Emphasis added]

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