AP Exclusive: Wyo. got EPA to delay frack finding by Mead Gruver, May 3, 2012, Associated Press
Wyoming’s governor persuaded the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to postpone an announcement linking hydraulic fracturing to groundwater contamination, giving state officials – whom the EPA had privately briefed on the study – time to attempt to debunk the finding before it rocked the oil and gas industry more than a month later, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. During the delay, state officials raised dozens of questions about the finding that the controversial procedure that has become essential to unlocking oil and gas deposits in Wyoming and beyond may have tainted groundwater near the gas patch community of Pavillion. Gov. Matt Mead contacted EPA Director Lisa Jackson and persuaded her to hold off any announcement, according to state emails and an interview with the governor. The more than 11,000 emails made available to AP in response to a state records request show that Wyoming officials took advantage of the postponement to “take a hard line” and coordinate an “all-out press” against the EPA in the weeks leading up to the announcement Dec. 8. Meanwhile, the chief state regulator of oil and gas development fretted over how the finding would affect state revenue. … “Contaminants present at high concentrations in the deep monitoring wells are likely a result of hydraulic fracturing,” read a “Key Findings” slide in an EPA PowerPoint shown at the meeting. Each slide was marked “Confidential-Do Not Disclose.” … Pavillion residents didn’t hear about the finding before the public announcement, said John Fenton, chairman of Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens. Fenton said he was unhappy that regulators hadn’t kept local residents fully apprised of the latest developments concerning their water supply. Yet he held EPA in higher regard than the state officials he said ignored Pavillion for years, prompting residents to request the EPA investigation. “Those of us living out here, we don’t trust the state,” he said.
-
Recent Posts
- NEBC, region of *prolific* unconventional oil and gas frac’ing: Another study showing harm to pregnant women near frac’d wells June 27, 2024
- Christie Belcourt, Indigenous artist, honoured with Canada Post stamp: “The earth is my government.” June 26, 2024
- Must Watch: Dr. Sandra Steingraber on Pore Space in context of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) June 25, 2024
- Pierre Poilievre thinks he can seduce Quebec with Steve Harper/IDU’s big bad common sense: Good thing Québécois are too wise to fall for those lies. June 24, 2024
- From loving AI to hating it: Why a computer scientist who spent over a decade studying and programming AI, now hates it June 23, 2024
- Fur farming and highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1, 2023: “Dead and culled animals, which might have already been infected, were taken from the farms to be processed as feed for other fur animals.” How hideous the human species is. June 22, 2024
- Global warming: Human pollution caused temperature extremes linked to brain damage in kids (before they’re even born). June 19, 2024
- Happy Pride month, all year every year! Especially you Cruella Daniella Smith, UCP, TBA and hate farmers Pierre Picklehead/Harper reforma cons. June 5, 2024
- AI Ancestry June 3, 2024
- Felonias Diaper Don Trump. Of course USA will vote him president again serving Putin, idiots. May 30, 2024
- How I hate AI, most abusive rude ‘n crude human tech creation ever. Alberta UnInnovates: AI Fools Advancing Health Care backwards with $9.5Million May 30, 2024
- Dr. Karen Elias on CCS: “Pore space means more space for the fossil fuel industry. … Nothing in carbon storage technology guarantees that buried deposits of massive amounts of CO2 will remain locked in place forever.” May 30, 2024
- Power to the people! Power to the students! Ceasefire! Divestment! Ontario Federation of Labour to U of Toronto President Meric Gertler: “If you move against the students, you’ll have to go through workers first” May 26, 2024
- Hahahaha shitza ha! Alberta Minister of Justice proves me wrong, revokes Douche’s Counsel (KC) for loudmouthed bigot misogynistic lawyer Rob Rakochey, formerly partner with Field Law, before that, senior partner, Norton Rose Fulbright. May 24, 2024
- Another human pollution-caused global warming “Oh no!” As arctic warms four times faster than elsewhere, thawing permafrost releases toxic metals, rusting over 75 rivers and streams in Alaska’s Brooks Range, turning them orange (like acid mine leakage), deadly to fish and other life. May 24, 2024