Drinking water and retirement dreams destroyed by gas drilling.

Over 30 years of hard work, destroyed

My wife Donna and I have lived for the last 32 years on our ranch in Pavillion, Wyoming. Pavillion is a lush agricultural area in central Wyoming surrounded by the Wind River Mountains, Owl Creek mountain range and the Wind River Reservation. In this part of the West, we are very lucky to have an irrigation district that delivers clean water from Wind River to many farmers and ranchers in the area.

Donna and I have worked hard to develop this place, raise our two kids, and tend to our cattle and horses. I’m a Viet Nam vet and Donna works in the administrative offices of our local school district. I thought that at this time in my life I’d have time to enjoy our four-year old granddaughter, Hailey, as she learns how to ride horse like her granddad. But, instead, I am watching everything that we’ve worked for be destroyed by the oil and gas industry, and I am afraid to have my grandchild out here to the ranch because of the contamination that is in our water, soil, and in the air.

We’ve lived around gas development in Pavillion since 1998. But, in 2000 the drilling ramped way up. 100 or more wells, one large compressor plant and a smaller one. That same year our neighbors started having significant problems with their water well. Shortly after the gas company, EnCana, drilled a gas well near my neighbor's house, his water well began to produce black, nasty water that smelled and tasted like gas. My neighbors worked with EnCana, they got some help from EnCana so that they could treat their water with a reverse osmosis system.

Our drinking water well destroyed

In 2004, EnCana drilled a well about 500 feet from my house and even closer to my drinking water well. In the past, we had always had clean, fresh water! Shortly after that our water began to taste and smell like gas, too. At this point in time my water well also stopped producing as much. At first, EnCana tried to improve the water by testing and chlorinating it. While testing was going on they hauled water into a cistern for us.

About seven months later though EnCana removed the cistern and I decided to drill a new well for the house, since I was pretty sure there were still contaminants in it. Upon drilling the new well with a local water well drilling outfit, we hit gas! Our new water well blew out and we were evacuated from our home. The State Homeland Security force and local firefighters closed off roads all around our home until we could get the gas contained with out igniting.

The gas that you could hear and smell was blowing 30 feet out of the surface under tremendously high pressure. I took the deed to our property in order for EnCana to come forward and cement the well off. It was three days before we could go back into the home. We kept hauling our drinking water and only used the well water for household use and showering. During this time we started having funny symptoms, like both of our mouths being dry or Donna’s eyes stinging.

We had a hydrogeologist and petroleum experts come out to our place and tell us that the gas development and reworking of all these wells through hydraulic fracturing caused the methane to migrate underground. I also worry about all the chemicals from the drilling. Where are they going? At first, EnCana representatives worked with us, but the more we asked questions about what the “non-detect” levels really meant and what the extent of the water contamination in our community really was, the more EnCana started to treat us like crazy, hard to get along with trouble makers. “Don’t I want the country to be able to produce energy? Do I want to live naked in a tree and eat nuts with out any modern conveniences?”

A fundamental power imbalance between driller and landowner

At least eight of my neighbors have issues with their drinking water, and now EnCana has admitted to the State that there are three water contamination issues associated with three pits that were on their well sites at one point. The more I talk to my neighbors, the more I am overwhelmed by the extent of the contamination. I am also overwhelmed at the imbalance of power between ordinary citizens and the gas companies. We have formed a community group, the Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens, and are going to work to ensure that our decision makers strengthen and enforce the laws.

They can get the gas out, but they need to do it right. And we need to protect the people and the water for future generations. They have made such a mess out here they will never clean it up. So now what are we suppose to do for water? I can’t live without good water, Can you?

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