Gas drilling came to the Raton Basin in the late 1990s and along with it heavy traffic, noise—and what many locals believe—contaminated water. Did the state of Colorado do enough to help?
This story picks up from where our reporting in the fall of 2014 left off. Numerous residents had discovered they had a chemical in their water, “tert-Butyl alcohol” or “TBA.” No one could figure out how this man-made substance got there—a chemical that wasn’t detected until after gas drilling came to the area. It was a mystery, so the COGCC, the state agency that regulates oil and gas activities, investigated and published a report suggesting TBA was naturally occurring, among other explanations. Now the case is closed and the report, not only leaves more questions than it answers—it resigns residents to live with water they feel they dare not drink.
More photos and transcript at H20 Radio.org.
Part 1:
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Part 2:
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