Texas-based Legacy Resources announced this week it will not follow through on a $45 million deal to buy a natural gas drilling field near Pavillion, Wyo., where the Environmental Protection Agency recently found the cancer-causing chemical benzene at 50 times the level safe for humans during sampling of the town's water supply, Abraham Lustgarten of ProPublica reports, noting that the situation comes to light as the country waits for results from a nationwide survey on hydraulic fracturing and "could signal difficulty for companies trying to turn over aging gas fields if there are environmental or health concerns related to their operations."
A spokesman for EnCana, the company that owns the drilling field, told Lustgarten the company retains "responsibility for any outcome resulting from the ongoing groundwater investigation," but added "uncertainty regarding further development" made Legacy pull out of the deal. Legacy had planned to tap into the 45 billion cubic feet of gas believed to be under the field.
Residents had been complaining for years that hydraulic fracturing used in natural gas drilling had polluted their water supply. EPA previously found hydrocarbon contaminates in water wells and had advised residents not to drink their water and to ventilate their homes while showering or washing dishes. The water EPA tested last month came from two monitoring wells drilled 1,000 feet down, below most water wells, Lustgarten reports. Along with benzene, results found several other chemicals commonly used in hydraulic fracturing, like diesel fuel and 2-Butoxyethanol. The company told Lustgarten the chemicals occur naturally and drilling is not blame, and the EPA has not yet announced the cause of pollution, though it has said a detailed report analyzing possible causes will be released. (Read more)
A spokesman for EnCana, the company that owns the drilling field, told Lustgarten the company retains "responsibility for any outcome resulting from the ongoing groundwater investigation," but added "uncertainty regarding further development" made Legacy pull out of the deal. Legacy had planned to tap into the 45 billion cubic feet of gas believed to be under the field.
Residents had been complaining for years that hydraulic fracturing used in natural gas drilling had polluted their water supply. EPA previously found hydrocarbon contaminates in water wells and had advised residents not to drink their water and to ventilate their homes while showering or washing dishes. The water EPA tested last month came from two monitoring wells drilled 1,000 feet down, below most water wells, Lustgarten reports. Along with benzene, results found several other chemicals commonly used in hydraulic fracturing, like diesel fuel and 2-Butoxyethanol. The company told Lustgarten the chemicals occur naturally and drilling is not blame, and the EPA has not yet announced the cause of pollution, though it has said a detailed report analyzing possible causes will be released. (Read more)
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