Water wells in Mora County tested

“Mora County will be the first county in the United States to put baseline water testing in place on private land prior to natural-gas development in their county.”

Baseline Water Well Testing Completed for Mora County: Las Vegas Basin Property Owners

In December 2010, Drilling Mora County completed a baseline water-well sampling and testing protocol on a number of private and community drinking water wells that traverse the Las Vegas Basin area east to west and north to south on land that has either been leased for natural gas drilling or near leased land.

Through a grant from the McCune Foundation, Drilling Mora County put into place this first-time protocol thanks to help from many individuals and groups across the Southwest, Northeast and Canada, all of whom have been impacted by federal and state government fiscal hunger led by an industry whose race to drill the last “great places” in the United States and Canada gains daily momentum.

The protocol follows strict guidelines for collecting and testing water samples that represent the accuracy of the landowner’s water quality. During the sampling and testing, known hydraulic fracturing chemicals, including surfactants, methane gas, heavy metals and radioactive substances, were tested for, to establish their presence
or absence in each well. Tracers that are found in industry’s hydraulic fracturing fluids will be evidence of contamination, thanks to the in-depth work of Dr. Theo Colborn, Endocrine Disruption Exchange (http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.fracturing.php).
Certified water sampling professional Walter Drew of Indepth Water Testing, Santa Fe, and the New Mexico State certified drinking-water lab, Hall Environmental Analytical Laboratory, Albuquerque, New Mexico, ran the procedures on the water wells—wells 40-300 feet deep.

According to retired EPA environmental engineer Weston Wilson, “Mora County will be the first county in the United States to put baseline water testing in place on private land prior to natural-gas development in their county.”

Wilson is known for his whistle-blower status when he presented to Congress that the EPA 2004 Hydraulic Fracturing study was a cover-up for industry to continue “business as usual” in spite of the EPA’s report outlining the health impacts the toxic chemicals would have on the drinking water when pumped into the ground.

Industry has a polished and successful edge on discounting citizen health and water contamination, and without baseline testing in place prior to the drilling, has the leverage to claim that contaminants present in the water wells are “naturally occurring,” thereby claiming it is not a result of their drilling practices. This baseline testing in Mora County will show industry what was existing in the aquifers prior to industry’s drilling procedures, and will prove the causal impact should drilling ever occur in Mora County.

But according to incoming Mora County Commissioner, John Olivas, “There will be no gas drilling in Mora County under my watch.” And incoming commissioner Paula Garcia certainly appears to be an equally strong advocate for protecting Mora County’s water and the health and safety of the citizens. Commissioner Laudente Quintana fought to protect the water in Wagon Mound, Mora County, when mayor, and his track record shows he is an “official of the people.”

The oil industry has kept mum about their hydraulic fracturing chemicals until recently, when Halliburton was forced via a subpoena to expose its toxic ingredients to Congress. Still playing a “game,” industry continues to equate what it pumps into the ground as no more toxic than ingredients in lipstick, cleaning products and shampoo. But for those who know that these products are unregulated by government, and harbor many health-damaging chemicals, industry’s’ claims do not dispel the urgency to stop all hydraulic fracturing in order to keep the health of the people, animals and ecosystems intact.

Hydraulic fracturing chemicals used during natural-gas development and highly toxic chemicals used during the initial drilling process have been implicated in water well contamination throughout the United States, and most recently by the EPA in Texas against Range Resources Corp.

By Kathleen Dudley, Co-founder, Drilling Mora County
http://drillingmoracounty.blogspot.com/