EPA steps away from fracking investigation in Wyoming

Last October, Ars published an update to a US EPA investigation linking natural gas production to groundwater contamination in Wyoming. On Thursday, the EPA announced that it will step back from the investigation, ceding leadership to the State of Wyoming.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will further investigate groundwater conditions around Pavillion with support from the EPA, according to the press release. The scope of the investigation will be more limited, however. It'll now focus on a select number of private wells rather than larger questions about the possibility of gas production and hydraulic fracking impacts in shallow and deep groundwater. The State plans to additionally sample fourteen water supply wells, analyze existing data on the cement seals in gas production wells within a quarter mile of those water wells, and search for records of previous wastewater pits used to hold fracking fluid in that area. The results are scheduled to be finalized and released in September 2014.

Some of that work will be paid for with funds from a $1.5 million grant that Encana, the gas exploration company operating in Pavillion, is giving to the Wyoming Natural Resource Foundation.