Energy Environmental Blog

Update: Pavillion

Written by Greg Russell | Dec 31, 2011 12:29:25 PM

We reported earlier this month on a U.S. EPA study purporting to link groundwater contamination in Pavillion, WY to frac operations (see here).  The Star-Tribune has an interesting article noting some of the defects in that study:  "Yet the EPA’s own data —including details not mentioned in the draft report — indicates the agency’s conclusions are partially based on improperly analyzed samples from six private drinking-water wells and two EPA-drilled deep monitoring wells in Pavillion. *** The EPA also found contamination in pure water control samples, didn’t purge the test wells properly before gathering samples and didn’t mention in its report whether it tested water carried by a truck used in well drilling, say officials with the Wyoming Water Development Commission who, because of their expertise on water wells, reviewed the EPA’s publicly available information."

As we noted before, U.S. EPA's record on these types of issues isn't that good ...