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CONSERVATION GROUPS’ COMMENTS <br />UNCOMPAHGRE FIELD OFFICE RMP AND DEIS <br />112 <br />discovered they contained benzene, which was traceable to a seep caused by EnCana <br />while drilling for natural gas. EnCana was subsequently fined $371,000 as a result of <br />contaminating West Divide Creek.314 <br /> <br />• The COGCC investigated complaints from Weld County, Colorado that domestic <br />water wells were allegedly contaminated from oil and gas development. The COGCC <br />concluded after investigation that the Ellsworth’s water well contained a mixture of <br />biogenic and thermogenic methane that was in part attributable to oil and gas <br />development. Ms. Ellsworth and the operator reached a settlement in that case.315 <br /> <br />• In Pavillion, Wyoming, EPA found 11 of 39 water samples collected from domestic <br />wells were contaminated with chemicals linked to local natural gas fracking <br />operations. The EPA found arsenic, methane gas, diesel-fuel-like compounds and <br />metals including copper and vanadium. Of particular concern were compounds called <br />adamantanes – a natural hydrocarbon found in natural gas – and a little-known <br />chemical called 2-butoxyethanol phosphate, or 2-BEp. 2-BEp is closely related to 2- <br />BE, a substance known to be used in fracking fluids.316 <br /> <br />• The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection drafted a report that <br />documented cases in two dozen communities where new or operating oil or gas wells <br />led to methane migrating into drinking water wells and streams, as well as more than <br />three dozen more cases where methane contamination of drinking water sources was <br />linked to abandoned wells.317 <br /> <br />• A house in Bainbridge, Ohio exploded on November 15, 2007. The investigators <br />determined that the well had been improperly constructed, that hydraulic fractures <br />grew out of zone, and pressure was not safely managed after fracturing, allowing gas <br />to migrate into the shallow drinking water aquifer and subsequently into domestic <br />water wells, culminating in the explosion. 318 The faulty cement casing of the well <br /> <br />314 Colo. Oil & Gas Conservation Comm’n, In the Matter of Alleged Violations of the Rules and <br />Regulations of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission by Encana Oil & Gas (USA) <br />Inc., Garfield County Colorado, Cause No. 1V, Order No. 1V-276 (August 16, 2004), available <br />at: https://cogcc.state.co.us/orders/orders/1v/276.html (attached as Exhibit 196). 315 Letter from David Neslin, Director, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, to Mr. <br />and Mrs. Ellsworth (August 7, 2009) (attached as Exhibit 175). 316 See EPA Draft Report, Investigation of Ground Water Contamination Near, Pavillion, <br />Wyoming (Dec. 2011) (attached as Exhibit 87). 317 Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Oil and Gas Management, <br />Stray Natural Gas Migration Associated with Oil and Gas Wells, Draft Report (October 28, <br />2009), available at: <br />http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/subject/advcoun/oil_gas/2009/Stray%20Gas%20Migration%20C <br />ases.pdf (attached as Exhibit 177). 318 See, e.g. Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mineral Resources <br />Management, Report on the Investigation of the Natural Gas Invasion of Aquifers in Bainbridge <br />Township of Geauga County, Ohio (September 1, 2008) (attached as Exhibit 178); Bair, E. S.,