EPA says fracking likely polluted Wyoming aquifer by Timothy Gardner, December 8, 2011, Reuters
The agency said “the best explanation” for the pollution was that fluids from underground hydraulic fracturing migrated up from fracking operations and contaminated the aquifer. “The presence of these compounds is consistent with migration from areas of gas production,” it said. EnCana Corp of Canada, which owns the natural gas field in Pavillion, Wyoming, slammed the report. “The synthetic chemicals could just as easily have come from contamination when the EPA did their sampling, or from how they constructed their monitoring wells,” said Doug Hock, a company spokesman. The EPA said Wyoming was much more vulnerable than other areas to water contamination from fracking chemicals because drilling there often takes place much closer to the surface than in other states. [Emphasis added]