Rancher Wants to Know If Oil, Gas Drilling is Polluting Drinking Water

A Pavillion-area rancher told a House committee Wednesday that he is frustrated with an inability to find out what chemicals from oil and gas drilling are being used around his home. He said he fears those chemicals may be penetrating his and his neighbors' water wells. "There has to be some regulation. There has to be some accountability," John Fenton said. He urged the committee to kill Senate Joint Resolution 5. It asks Congress and the president to preserve the exemption for the process of hydraulic fracturing in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee will likely act Friday on SJ 5, said chairman Rep. Tom Lockhart, R- Casper. The committee took testimony Wednesday on the bill, which has passed the Senate. Supporters say it is about maintaining a safe, reliable practice that has been used in 80 percent of Wyoming's oil and gas wells to produce hydrocarbons that would otherwise be unreachable, adding immense amounts of money to state coffers...Wyoming Tribune-Eagle