On December 14, 2015, the Wyoming Department of
Environmental Quality (WDEQ) released a draft report examining issues of groundwater quality in the
Pavillion area. The draft report is entitled “Pavillion, Wyoming area domestic
water wells draft final report and palatability study.”
In 2008, Pavillion residents living close to gas
production wells involving hydraulic fracturing expressed significant concerns
over changes in the quality of their drinking water. From 2009 to 2011, U.S. EPA
undertook field investigations and released in December 2001 a draft report
considering the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on domestic water wells in the
Pavillion area. In September 2013, EPA announced that it would not proceed further
with the draft investigation report but that it would support the state of
Wyoming in an ongoing investigation of Pavillion groundwater issues. The state
of Wyoming commissioned the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality to
perform said investigation.
WDEQ concluded that “evidence does not indicate that
hydraulic fracturing fluids have risen to shallow depths intersected by
water-supply wells” but “suggests that upward gas seepage . . . was happening
naturally before gas well development.”
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
01/05/2015
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