Kabob | Gasland

Colorado Couple Feeling Direct Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing

Mike Markham, a Colorado resident, lights his sink on fire with a match.
Photo courtesy of: Bridge Magazine.

   Mike Markham, a resident of Weld County, Colo., lives on a farm with his wife, Marsha Mendenhall, and their two dogs whose names were not given.

     One day, when Marhkam ran some tap water in the faucet, the water came out a brownish color. He realized shortly thereafter that something was not right. 

    When Josh Fox, creator of the 2010 film “Gasland,” interviewed both Markham and Mendenhall in their home, Markham brought out a sample of brown-colored water to show Fox.           

     “That’s what our water looked like,” Markham said.

    Markham filed a complaint with the Colorado Oil Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) because he thought that methane was embedded into the drinking water. The COGCC collected water samples from Markham’s well and sent them to the Empact Analytical Systems and later the Evergreen Analytical Systems to be tested. 

    The COGCC, according to their website, “regulates the development and production of the natural resources of oil and gas in the state of Colorado in a manner to protect public health, safety and welfare.”

    Three weeks later, the results came back. “We’ve tested your water,” Mendenhall said the company said. “There’s nothing wrong with your water.” One of the samples that the COGCC tested was the same one that Markham showed to Fox.  

    To combat this issue, Markham and Mendenhall installed their own tanks to keep fresh water inside of them. There are two, 500-gallon talks outside of the house. Once a week, according to Markham, he goes into town and buys water. 

    Mike Markham and Marsha Mendenhall are not alone. They are one of several hundred cases of how hydraulic fracturing can impact the human experience in everyday life. 

     Hydraulic fracturing has been used for over 60 years in over one million wells, according to the Office of Fossil Energy.

    Hydraulic fracturing flew under the radar for a long time, the Office of Fossil Energy describes. More recently, citizens across the United States complained that fracturing can cause significant problems to drinking water and/or the environment.

    According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are five steps to the hydraulic fracturing water cycle: Water Acquisition, Chemical Mixing, Well Injection, Produced Water Handling and Wastewater Disposal and Reuse. Each step of the process involves water of some sort that supports hydraulic fracturing.

    The EPA reports people rely on clean and copious water in order to complete their most basic needs including bathing, cooking, cleaning, etc.

    In their 2016 executive summary, the EPA explains that in the early 2000’s, people began to become very concerned that drinking water could become compromised as a result of hydraulic fracturing at nearby oil and gas wells. 

   That same executive summary by the EPA from 2016 stated that in 2010, 86 percent of the U.S. population relied on public water supplies for their drinking water. The other 14 percent of the U.S. population relied on non-public water supplies for their drinking water.

     The EPA executive summary detailed where non-public water supplies come from: private wells that supplies drinking water to a residence.

    Also described in the 2016 executive summary by the EPA is how high-quality drinking water might be troubled in the future. The EPA cites climate and water use changes for use as reasons why access to healthy drinking water might become a crisis. 

     Since 2000, about 30 percent of the total area of the contiguous U.S. has experienced moderate drought conditions and about 20 percent has experienced severe drought conditions, the EPA said in their 2016 executive summary. 

    On their website, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH) explained that the impact hydraulic fracturing has on people’s health living near the drilling sites is not currently known. 

    The community impacts with hydraulic fracturing can vary according to NIH. Positive impacts include an increase to healthcare access and spike up local employment rates. Negative impacts include more traffic, light and noise problems.

   The NIH says that more burdens can be imposed on resources as a result of drilling, disrupting the normal human life. Roads and hospitals are the most common things to be directly impacted by hydraulic fracturing. 

     Today, Markham and Mendenhall are still dealing with the issue of hydraulic fracturing. 

    Markham and Mendenhall told Fox a story about how Markham dealt with unsafe water because of gurgling in the well. When he heard that sound in the well, he used a plastic bag and sealed it off over the wellhead. Within minutes, the water started to fill up the bag entirely. 

     Markham closed off the bag and placed a fuse in it. Markham then grabbed a random bag and lit it, where upon, the bag lost control of itself and began flying towards the road.  

     After the recollection of the fuse incident, Markham took Fox inside of the kitchen where he wanted Fox to see a first-hand account of how bad the water problem has become.                  

     Markham took a lighter and placed it under the kitchen sink. The sink sparked causing the water to convert into flames. Markham had to step back for safety reasons, surprising Fox.  

     Markham described how dangerous this problem has become. “I have been lighting that water up quite a bit,” Markham said.