140
Wyoming. The story was that a production company had drilled and fracked a gas
reservoir at a relatively shallow depth below the town’s water supply aquifer. The
water developed some taste and odor problems, and concerned citizens asked the
EPA to investigate if their water supply was contaminated with frack fluid. The EPA
paid a contractor to drill two monitoring wells in 2010 near the gas production site
so water samples could be collected and analyzed, and samples from the new wells
showed the presence of organic compounds in the groundwater that were originally
linked to fracking. The media picked up on this and the story became a sensation.
Several industry investigators looked at the data and noted that the organic compounds were not the usual materials added to frack fluid. The American Petroleum
Institute sponsored a subsequent investigation into the construction of the monitoring wells, and discovered that the drilling contractor had been left unsupervised by
the EPA during the drilling process and had not followed specifications for installing the water quality monitoring wells. Instead of using new, clean, stainless steel
casing as specified, the driller saved money by substituting recycled and painted
steel casing that introduced organic materials into the aquifer. The API study concluded that the monitoring well construction itself had ended up contaminating the
groundwater. The USGS followed up in 2012 by collecting, analyzing, and qualityassuring several suites of water samples from the monitoring wells (Wright et al.
2012). Without drawing any conclusions, the USGS passed the data over to the
Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
The Wyoming DEQ took over the investigation, and ran 11,700 additional chemical analyses on Pavillion water samples at a cost that exceeded $900,000. Cisterns
were installed at a cost of $929,268 in 2014–2015 for Pavillion homeowners who
did not want to continue to use the groundwater supply. The final report on the incident (Wyoming DEQ 2019) recommended that the EPA plug and abandon the two
2010 monitoring wells. The report also concluded that there is no evidence to show
frack fluids rose to the depths of the water supply wells. The taste and odor problems appeared to be due to the presence of bacteria linked to declining water well
yields that led to the biodegradation of naturally-occurring organic compounds in
the aquifer.
The original author of the EPA study still maintains that organic compounds used
for well stimulation have been detected in water samples from the two EPA monitoring wells at Pavillion, and that the concentrations of major ions in water from one
of the wells provides more evidence of upward migration of frack chemicals to the
depths of shallow groundwater (DiGiulio and Jackson 2016). However, given the
questionable completion practices on the EPA monitoring wells, there will always
be a significant degree of uncertainty in any water quality data on samples from
these wells. A rigorous investigation of potential groundwater contamination at
Pavillion requires that these two wells be plugged and abandoned, and that new
monitoring wells be properly installed.
Wyoming is a lightly populated state with a small tax base. The nearly $2 million
spent to address the Pavillion water supply “problem” was a significant expenditure.
It now appears to have been unnecessary, given the findings of improper monitoring
well construction and the inaccurate interpretation of laboratory data. Policy was
8 Impacts to Human Health and Ecosystems
Wyoming. The story was that a production company had drilled and fracked a gas
reservoir at a relatively shallow depth below the town’s water supply aquifer. The
water developed some taste and odor problems, and concerned citizens asked the
EPA to investigate if their water supply was contaminated with frack fluid. The EPA
paid a contractor to drill two monitoring wells in 2010 near the gas production site
so water samples could be collected and analyzed, and samples from the new wells
showed the presence of organic compounds in the groundwater that were originally
linked to fracking. The media picked up on this and the story became a sensation.
Several industry investigators looked at the data and noted that the organic compounds were not the usual materials added to frack fluid. The American Petroleum
Institute sponsored a subsequent investigation into the construction of the monitoring wells, and discovered that the drilling contractor had been left unsupervised by
the EPA during the drilling process and had not followed specifications for installing the water quality monitoring wells. Instead of using new, clean, stainless steel
casing as specified, the driller saved money by substituting recycled and painted
steel casing that introduced organic materials into the aquifer. The API study concluded that the monitoring well construction itself had ended up contaminating the
groundwater. The USGS followed up in 2012 by collecting, analyzing, and qualityassuring several suites of water samples from the monitoring wells (Wright et al.
2012). Without drawing any conclusions, the USGS passed the data over to the
Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
The Wyoming DEQ took over the investigation, and ran 11,700 additional chemical analyses on Pavillion water samples at a cost that exceeded $900,000. Cisterns
were installed at a cost of $929,268 in 2014–2015 for Pavillion homeowners who
did not want to continue to use the groundwater supply. The final report on the incident (Wyoming DEQ 2019) recommended that the EPA plug and abandon the two
2010 monitoring wells. The report also concluded that there is no evidence to show
frack fluids rose to the depths of the water supply wells. The taste and odor problems appeared to be due to the presence of bacteria linked to declining water well
yields that led to the biodegradation of naturally-occurring organic compounds in
the aquifer.
The original author of the EPA study still maintains that organic compounds used
for well stimulation have been detected in water samples from the two EPA monitoring wells at Pavillion, and that the concentrations of major ions in water from one
of the wells provides more evidence of upward migration of frack chemicals to the
depths of shallow groundwater (DiGiulio and Jackson 2016). However, given the
questionable completion practices on the EPA monitoring wells, there will always
be a significant degree of uncertainty in any water quality data on samples from
these wells. A rigorous investigation of potential groundwater contamination at
Pavillion requires that these two wells be plugged and abandoned, and that new
monitoring wells be properly installed.
Wyoming is a lightly populated state with a small tax base. The nearly $2 million
spent to address the Pavillion water supply “problem” was a significant expenditure.
It now appears to have been unnecessary, given the findings of improper monitoring
well construction and the inaccurate interpretation of laboratory data. Policy was
8 Impacts to Human Health and Ecosystems