Hydraulic Fracturing in Colorado

In Colorado, hydraulic fracturing is being blamed for causing residents' well water to burst into flames. The phenomena was recently showcased in the HBO documentary "GasLand", when one Weld County homeowner was shown igniting the water coming out of a faucet with a bic lighter. Many homeowners in Weld believe methane gas has migrated into their water wells as a result of fracking operations.

Weld County is home to more than 13,000 natural gas wells. In 2009, more than two dozen homeowners in the county asked the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to test their water for the petroleum products used in the drilling process. Those tests are ongoing.

Weld is not the only Colorado county with a methane problem. A 2008 study prepared for Garfield County, Colorado - where more than 5,000 wells were drilled between 2000 and 2008 - found that methane contamination of water wells has increased with more drilling. The methane was traced to the same formations where drilling has taken place.

According to a ProPublica report, the Garfield study was among the first to broadly analyze the ability of methane and other contaminants to migrate underground in drilling areas, and to find that such contamination was in fact occurring. The three-year study examined over 700 methane samples from 292 locations and found that methane, as well as wastewater from the drilling, was making its way into drinking water not as a result of a single accident but on a broader basis.

As the number of gas wells in the area increased from 200 to 1,300 in this decade, methane levels in nearby water wells increased too. The study found that natural faults and fractures exist in underground formations in Colorado, and that it may be possible for contaminants to travel through them, ProPublica said.

"It challenges the view that natural gas, and the suite of hydrocarbons that exist around it, is isolated from water supplies by its extreme depth," Judith Jordan, the oil and gas liaison for Garfield County, told ProPublica. "It is highly unlikely that methane would have migrated through natural faults and fractures and coincidentally arrived in domestic wells at the same time oil and gas development started, after having been down there ...for over 65 million years."

* Denotes required field.

Title

* First Name

* Last Name

* Email Address

* Phone Number

Cell Phone Number

Office Phone Number

Street Address

Apartment/Suite

City

State

Zip Code

Please provide the best method and times to contact you:

Please describe your case:

No Yes, I agree to the Parker Waichman Alonso LLP disclaimers.Click here to review all.

Yes, I would like to receive the Parker Waichman Alonso LLP monthly newsletter, InjuryAlert.

please do not fill out the field below.