Below is a letter I sent to the COGCC and Commissioners. I've highlighted in Red what caused the seep. I base this conclusion on similar seep events which occurred in the nearby area in 2003 as well as the data and evidence from the 2004 blow-out.

Letter sent via e-mail to COGCC 12-10-08

Re: New (2008) Divide Creek Seep / My previous letter to COGCC dated: July 29, 2008

December 10, 2008

Dear Mr. Neslin and COGCC Commissioners,

I am writing to thank you, Mr. Neslin, for visiting the 2008 Divide Creek seep site together with an environmental specialist and engineer on December 04, 2008.

Mr. Neslin, as you know, our concern remains for the ground water in the region that appears to have been impacted by a seep that was reported June 29^th 2008.

As you are aware, the upwelling and surface expression of ground water associated with the emergence of this seep subsided in early autumn. It returned November 10^th 2008. I appreciate the COGCC collecting surface samples of this water on the 12-04-08 visit. The ground water in this area still, however, has not been sampled, and I ask and urge you to do so immediately. We obtain our domestic water from this source and are very concerned for volatile hydrocarbon constituents which do not have an opportunity to volatilize at the surface and so may be present in the ground water yet to express to the surface.

In preparation for this visit, I also asked the COGCC to sample the gas which continues to accumulate in a small area of West Divide Creek. The sampling of the gas, however, did not occur. I am asking once again that the COGCC sample the gas which continues to accumulate. I was told the reason the gas was not sampled was because the COGCC’s engineers found no anomalous activities which would raise questions as to the origin of the gas. I was also told that beaver ponds release gas for years after their forming. I’d like to point out that I believe this gas is relative to recent drilling activity in this area. The gas is located in the flowing creek itself, but only in an isolated area, perhaps 15’ x 15’. The beaver pond that was once there only existed for less than a year before it was washed away and the creek bed was scoured by 2008 spring run-off. I believe the gas present is formation gas. It is in the area where the paralyzed frog was found; in the same area as gas that expressed to the surface for more than eight continuous minutes in the spring of 2008, and is in an area where vegetation is struggling to grow. The gas is flammable.

Because there are now large areas above Divide Creek – near the Schwartz pad - experiencing vegetation die-off, I further request that the COGCC conduct soil/gas sampling around the Schwartz pad site and surrounding, impacted fields. In recent months, it appears that methane gas is once again escaping into the surface environment. The fields were appraised by COGCC staff on 12-04-08, but I was told no action would be taken because there is no knowledge of land management practices relative to those fields. In the twenty years we have lived here, none of the fields in question have been irrigated (except for a brief instance many years ago on the Griffin property) and all fields are planted similarly in dry-land and native vegetations. The large tracts of dead vegetation appear exactly as they did in the spring of 2004 at the height of the massive methane release from the Schwartz pad (Divide Creek Seep). Other large areas of dead vegetation exist near the seep area in Divide Creek. The effects of natural gas and methane on vegetation have been known since 1977. Such an escape is causing the destruction of critical elk and deer habitat and is further a waste of natural gas resources.

In my continuing efforts to ascertain the source of environmental degradation that has occurred and continues to occur in this region, I spoke with an engineer on December 05, 2008 and learned that the Schwartz well 11-2A did, in fact experience a ‘kick’ which exerted ‘shoe’ pressures very near to that which successfully degrades the formation during fracing operations. This increase in pressure occurred within 1000’ feet of the surface and perhaps closer to the surface given the extreme likelihood of intersecting faults in this area (again, the patterns of dead vegetation emanating from the Schwartz site substantiates this suspicion). A remedial cement job was required, requested and completed in January, 2008 – two days after the procedure was approved by the COGCC.

Given the similarities of this seep to the seep in 2004, I strongly suspect that kick (and possibly other similar events before and/or since) caused or contributed to the adverse environmental effects we are experiencing. The seep we initially saw at the end of June likely made its way some 1000 feet up through the formation from January 2008 first expressing in April and even more so in June. It’s taken the methane another few months to find its way up through the additional 300 feet in elevation to the top of the canyon at the fields, where we now see it emanating from the Schwartz pad and across nearby fields – exactly like we did in 2004. The timetable of migration is consistent. I think this ‘kick’ degraded the fragile geologic formation sufficiently to cause another seep. Because of the recent resurgence of ground water, my guess is that more methane is coming up also. Gas pushes ground water upward through geology. This is not the diagnosis of a genius. A review of drilling records prior to the 2004 seep as well as the events leading up to the 2004 seep will show that even “moderate” pressures in this fragile formation lead to surface methane seeps. Dr. Geoffrey Thyne’s analysis of the Phase II Hyrogeologic study of this area also bears out continued impacts to water from methane as a result of drilling operations in this specific area.

That this was allowed to happen again and is being ignored is a travesty.

It is abundantly clear that the East Mamm Creek Field Order and stipulations are insufficient to safeguard the environment or the people living within it from ever more devastating environmental events like the one that occurred in 2004 and is occurring again. You may recall the 16-page letter I submitted as a public comment outlining our concerns as the Commission debated proposed rules. I sated in that letter that we experienced a silent spring in 2004. Now we have experienced a silent summer. Most of the wildlife have disappeared from this area and have yet to return. We’ve experienced an estimated thirty-percent die-off of trees, leaf canopy and ground-cover vegetation. This is of even greater concern, given that we are under contract with the USDA to preserve a once-again devastated riparian area.

I am astounded and frustrated by the COGCC’s reluctance to examine the totality of adverse effects we have experienced and documented in the Divide Creek area since EnCana was allowed and encouraged to embark on a very aggressive drilling program in this region. The confrontational environmental specialist ignoring the capture of a paralyzed frog in an area to be sampled, and that specialist walking off the project left me wondering what the purpose of the COGCC really is.

There has been very little oversight and an abundance of what appears to be a concerted effort to avoid an investigation of the area; debase the validity of our concerns and observations; and obfuscate clear facts that appear to correlate effects with a cause. I believe this ‘disconnect’ is occurring within the supervisory staff of the environmental department of the COGCC. Without an acknowledgement of environmental impacts, how can engineering draw conclusions as to a probable cause and create solutions? They cannot, and the destruction of our private property and the broader environment is allowed to continue.

I remind you that even without new and improved rules, there are rules that exist to protect against and could have prevented in large measure what is occurring on our property as I write this.

I am immensely thankful for the common-sense and principled concern consistently expressed by COGCC Commissioner Tresi Houpt. It is only thanks to Mrs. Houpt that this serious and alarming situation has received any interest and response from the COGCC at all – during, ironically, the deliberation by the COGCC over rules better intended to protect public health and the environment.

Because of encroaching winter weather, time is running out for easy access to the affected areas. Therefore, in the interest of expediency, this is a summary letter of a much longer letter to soon follow which will detail these issues and cite references with regard to not only the improper delineation of the Divide Creek seep in 2004, but also the systemic failures of the COGCC to oversee renewed drilling in the area and investigate adverse impacts of those activities upon the environment.

The conduct of this agency which enjoys jurisdictional primacy over issues of environmental and pubic health has been appalling; not only with regard to this latest event, but particularly in light of everything learned in 2004. The circumstances surrounding this event are so similar to 2004 that the COGCC’s refusal to fully investigate must be called into formal question.

Copies of this forthcoming letter will be sent to, among others, the office of the Governor and all agency recipients which received copies of the correspondence referenced above.

Our observations continue to be documented for your personal analysis on the website www.journeyoftheforsaken.com, specifically, www.journeyoftheforsaken.com/divdecreekseep2008.htm

Please see attached:

Photos of the Schwartz area and surrounding fields with dead vegetation:

10-13-07 Schwartz field healthy grass [this demonstrates the grass that had grown back after 2004 blow out and relatively successful remediation]

Dead grassy patches 09-17-04 across Schwartz and nearby fields [this photo shows what the Schwartz area looked like after the blow-out]

Schwartz 11-17-08 showing area of dead vegetation [this photo demonstrates the dead patches that have returned in concert with new seep in Divide Creek]

Article from the: Journal of Arboriculture 3(8): August 1977 153“The Effect of Natural Gas on Trees and Other Vegetation” by Spencer H. Davis, Jr.

PowerPoint Presentation “Divide Creek Seep 2008” by myself as presented to Garfield County Commissioners in an effort to secure ground water sampling of seep area.

Thank you for your continued considerations of this matter.

Lisa Bracken


	This photo (looking N.W., shows a rig up on the Schwartz site back in 2004 - in the fall, right after an (still) unexplained re-pressurization occurred. The foreground in this photo is the Price or Juniper Group area (healthy grass field). Just beyond the fence line is the Schwartz (areas of die-off still evident from the spring seep) [09-17-04]


		Given EnCana's reputation of trashing an environment and then trying to cover it up; and given the COGCC's tendency to protect industrial interests to the detriment of landowners and the environment, I anticipated this happening again, so took photos of the fields prior to EnCana embarking on their aggressive new project. This rig was set up in the fall of 2007. You can see that the Schwartz field was healthy then. [10-13-07] It was around this time, however, that we first began noticing gas in Divide Creek. The gas and evidence of a seep would increase from this point forward, finally culminating in discovery of another seep in late June of 2008 - months away from the time this photo was taken....


	11-17-08 Here is the Schwartz - covered with more dead areas than live. But the adjacent property.... in the next photo...		[11-17-08] looks pretty good - again, like it did in 2004. Another view of these fields from summer can be seen on page 6 of the Divide Creek Seep 2008 pages.


	This is a view of the ground facing SE - just across from the Schwartz site. You can see dead ground extending off into the distance over the hill. [12-12-08]		Okay, let's turn to the right and look across the road in the middle ground and over toward the SW - same ground - only about 50 or 60 yards away. See how this grass is in good shape? [12-12-08]