Day 267

...and a Terminally Defunct COGCC Continues to
 Obstruct its Own Investigation....

and as of Week 77 wants to over-pressurize the geologic formation

Since Week 69 we now know that drilling activities initiated after the lifting of the moratorium have adversely impacted West Divide Creek and allowed produced formation gas to communicate with the shallow ground water -- again.

...and yet the COGCC still refuses to sample the ground water in the area of the 2008 seep site - all this despite a large area of vegetation die-off (suggestive of methane seep) and persistent iron-reducing bacteria near the beaver house (also where the paralyzed frog was found). The COGCC stull refuses to conduct simple soil/gas analysis - despite a new and vast area of grass die-off emanating form the Schwartz pad reported 12-12-08. The COGCC also refuses to sample the flammable gas accumulating in the creek bed (also where the frog was found).

Probable Reason:  The COGCC doesn't want to know what's really occurring in this geology with the kinds of drilling procedures they are allowing without adequate oversight.

Whatever the reason...

Long reigns the mantle of carefully structured and preserved ignorance (and the policies and politicians that benefit those that further it).

We know the leadership of the COGCC is totally ineffective;
But is there also ill-intentioned collusion between vital departments at the COGCC?

We've still received no communication from the COGCC on their proposed plan to pressurize the geologic formation by allowing annulus pressure to build on the wells on both the Schwartz and Price well pads - (a total of 20 wells).

Nor have we received any information on the two events from the Brown/EnCana wells in which cement was lost and water and gas mixed in the wellbores several months ago.

Nor have we received any information confirming what type of remedial work EnCana conducted on the Schwartz well that took a massive kick in late 2007 and in all likelihood lead to the seep discovered after run-off in 2008.

Initially, and reasonably, I considered that the environmental and engineering departments within the COGCC were (either by accident or by design) isolated from one another and therefore unable to determine appropriate cause-and-effect relationships regarding drilling activity and adverse environmental impacts in the area.

But I patiently brought those issues to light and over the past year have only seen more of the same - in fact, it has only gotten worse.

Despite our continued requests for information we have been met with mostly silence. The vague, disassociated and misleading information provided to us when we do obtain tiny bits and pieces from the engineering and environmental departments at COGCC, have left me little option but to conclude that there appears to be a coordinated effort within the COGCC to withhold critical information from the public relative to events which might present a libelous situation for EnCana and/or perhaps other drillers in the region.

Obviously, in light of the threat to groundwater and other issues of health and safety, such action on the part of the state's regulatory body which enjoys primary authority over all such matters is wholly inappropriate and acts to endanger the public.

A public, which - represented here by a handful of neighbors who bother to keep up - is becoming increasingly worried, frustrated and angry.

New Illustration added to Frac Page
illustrating the compounded groundwater risks
 associated with dense drilling
 

A pad every hundred acres
 

Each pad sporting ten frac'd wells to achieve
ten acre down-hole spacing. The new pad is only on its second well and hasn't frac'd either one, yet.

In The News.... 

Note: I always try to provide links where I can, but it doesn't always work out. If you submit a story, please try to include the link so folks can easily check it out.

This is an excellent article outlining the threat of intense activity coupled with specific environmental exemptions long-enjoyed by a prolific and lucrative, even subsidized industry.

Free Pass for Oil and Gas: Environmental Protections Rolled Back as Western Drilling Surges

Environmental Working Group  www.ewg.org

Published March 26, 2009

From the executive summary:

"Oil and natural gas companies have drilled almost 120,000 wells in the West since 2000, mostly for natural gas, and nearly 270,000 since 1980, according to industry records analyzed by Environmental Working Group. Yet drilling companies enjoy exemptions under most major federal environmental laws.

Oil and natural gas operations have industrialized the Western landscape, punching thousands of wells on pristine lands, injecting toxic chemicals, consuming millions of gallons of water, clawing out pits for their hazardous waste and slashing the ground for sprawling road networks. Every well carries with it the potential for serious environmental degradation."

Smart or Stupid? My two cents for President Obama...

Something Smart

Something Stupid

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