Family’s fracking lawsuit just got a boost from a federal judge by Heather Richards, Jun 15, 2017, Casper Star-Tribune
A Wyoming family won the right to call one of Gov. Matt Mead’s advisers to provide evidence in its case alleging that a gas company polluted groundwater and then lied about it.
U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson’s decision Wednesday calls for former Mead policy adviser Jerimiah Rieman to testify under oath regarding the natural gas company’s involvement in a state report that hydraulic fracturing and disposal pits could not be linked to water contamination in the Pavillion gas field.
Encana Corp. executive Lemuel Smith will also be deposed. He cooperated with Rieman on the state’s investigation [Cooperated or told the state what to do, how and when?], according to court documents.
The small legal victory for Jeff and Rhonda Locker of Pavillion continues a lingering saga in Wyoming over whether fracking and other operations polluted groundwater. That question led to opposing reports from state regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Federal investigators said in 2011 that gas operations had contaminated groundwater. They cautioned locals about drinking water from nearby wells.
The findings drew a handful of neighbors from a small town on the Wind River Reservation into a national debate over potential risks of hydraulic fracturing, now a common drilling practice.
The state took over the investigation in 2013. Encana provided Wyoming $1.5 million for the study. State regulators concluded that the unpalatable drinking water in the Pavillion area could not be tied to oil and gas operations. The bad taste was likely due to existing naturally occurring minerals and compounds in the water, they determined. Without pre-drilling sampling, the state said it could not link contaminants to operations. [Sounds like Alberta regulator’s protect Encana baloney, but without Alberta Environment Investigator Kevin Pilger’s Gopher Shit sampling! Even with pre-drilling sampling, would the regulator, led by Encana money, concluded anyway other than to protect the polluter?]
Court documents show that Rieman, who now leads the governor’s economic development initiative ENDOW, played a pivotal role in moving the investigation from federal to state control. The Lockers’ attorneys are seeking information on how much influence Encana then had over the state’s study.
Encana denies the Lockers’ claims and had fought the depositions, arguing that Rieman was protected from subpoena by the state constitution. The Encana executive, meanwhile, did not have extensive knowledge of the various Pavillion studies, having joined the company after original investigations, they said.
In the opinion filed Wednesday, the judge ruled the Lockers had the right to introduce evidence backing up a claim of bias due to Encana’s funding of the Pavillion investigation.
Deposition of Rieman will be limited to information that cannot otherwise be gleaned from the copious court documents already in the record, the judge wrote.
A spokesman for Encana declined to comment on the ongoing litigation. Mead’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The lead investigator in the EPA’s report, Dominic DiGiulio, criticized the state’s investigation after leaving the agency. He published a subsequent study with Stanford University again linking Encana’s activities with polluted groundwater.
State regulators have repeatedly stood by their investigator’s work and their report’s findings. [Emphasis added]
[Refer also to:
2012 12 08: Pavillion driller EnCana blasts EPA findings of hydraulic fracturing contaminating ground water and well water [Isn’t that ass backwards? EPA ought to be blasting Encana for fracking drinking water supplies and contaminating them!]
2012 10 10: EPA: Pavillion, Wyo., Natural-Gas Site Tests ‘Consistent’ With Earlier Data
2012 10 02: Wyoming Gov. Mead: Wait for analysis of Pavillion data
2012 089 28: USGS Aquifer Tests Near Pavillion, Wyoming Reveal Petroleum-Based Pollutants In Samples
2012 07 10: Pavillion cisterns a go
2012 07 13: Enana touts envt’l responsibility while Pavillion debate rages
2012 07 07: Top Wyo Official says Pavillion fracking investigation motivated by greed
2012 07 07: Wyoming official pins Pavillion pollution complaints on greed
2012 05 23: State of Wyoming proposes cisterns for Pavillion residents
2012 05 01: Review blames fracking for water contamination in Pavillion
2012 02 13: EPA rebuts Encana’s claims bad testing led to fracking link in Pavillion water testing
2011 11 04: Encana sale in Pavillion area raises concerns
2011 11 03: Citizens Call for Investigation and Halt to Encana’s Proposed Sale of Pavillion Gas Field [Guilty Guilty Guilty?]
2010 09 01: Pavillion, Wyoming-area residents told not to drink water
2008 01 01: Encana Passes the Buck on Contamination in Pavillion, Wyoming
Cover, Fast Forward Weekly, Encana Bow Building & CEO Gwyn Morgan:
Jessica Ernst has so much natural gas in her water she can set it on fire. Photos above and below by Wil Andruschak [Photo later used by National Geographic May 10, 2011]
The CEO leading Encana at the time of the company illegally fracking drinking water aquifers = none other than Gwyn Morgan]
Above image was the banner for www.gwynmorgan.ca before Gwyn Morgan threatened the owner of the website, and demanded transfer of the name of the site to Gwyn Morgan and removal of the banner.
Slide from Ernst presentations. What Encana did to Rosebud’s aquifers was illegal. Instead of enforcing the laws and regulations in place to protect Alberta’s water, the regulators bullied, shamed, and harassed the harmed families while engaging in fraud to cover-up Encana’s crimes.