![]() Despite the potential for health problems from unregulated pollution, neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Environmental Protection Agency is conducting any long-term public-health studies. In ramping up energy production, the federal government has weakened environmental regulations and reduced enforcement of public-health laws. Colorado holds an estimated 7.6 percent of America's natural gas reserves, making it "one the most growing active regions," says Fred Lawrence of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. And in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Congress has pushed to increase energy sources beyond the reach of the coastline. The Bush administration has said that such development is critical to reducing foreign imports and ensuring national security. Today, federal and state agencies in Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico are issuing more permits to drill for gas than ever before - the increase in some places is 90 percent. The small Colorado community is a microcosm of the natural-gas boom exploding across the Rocky Mountains. Over the next eight years, energy companies expect to build more than 10,000 additional wells in the county. Developed by Halliburton, the corporation formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, fracking loosens the rock and maximizes the flow of gas to the surface.Īt least 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie in the tight sand and coal bed formations below Garfield County, according to gas companies and industry geologists. Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is a half century-old process in which a gas company injects water, sand and the chemicals into the wells. Laura Amos, 43, an outfitter who lives 20 miles from Haire, recently developed a tumor in her adrenal gland, which she blames on her exposure to the chemicals. Scientists and environmentalists say the health hazards of the natural gas wells stem not only from air pollution but "fracking fluid," a mixture of carcinogenic chemicals, used in many of them. Between January and March of this year, eight people called the Garfield County oil and gas department, complaining about black smoke and strong chemical odors they worry are making them sick. For the past 15 years, he has been defending citizens like those in Garfield County, who blame the wells near their homes for their cancerous tumors, rectal bleeding and chronic headaches. For 15 years, Astrella was a successful attorney for the energy industry. Several dozen people in the area blame a rash of health problems on the wells, says Colorado lawyer Lance Astrella. Compressor stations, banks of rectangular huts with five-foot-diameter fans, sit back from the road and pump the gas into underground pipelines. Every few feet, 150-foot-tall drill rigs, graced with American flags, rise upward into the sky. Haire's doctor blames her health problems on the scenery's relatively recent addition: 600 natural gas wells, drilled by oil companies over the past two years. The changes that have happened in the past 18 months are so dramatic. ![]() It's frightening," says Haire, 55, tears filling her pale slate eyes as she looks through her living room window out on her back fields. "I feel like an alien, like I don't fit into my own environment. She's taken to wearing a respirator, even in the car. When she drives down this stretch of highway, her nose bleeds, her eyes burn, and her head pounds. ![]() But she says the landscape has been turned against her. Susan Haire, a former elementary teacher who ranches on a small scale, has lived atop one of the surrounding mesas for nearly a decade. There are few exits through this section of Garfield County, where the local population of deer and elk rival the number of ranchers, retirees and others who live here. Nearby, the snakelike silver Colorado River carves a valley floor where poplar trees, naked in the winter cold, cast spindly blue shadows across the snow. The 20 miles of interstate highway between rural Silt and Parachute, Colo., slice a crusty landscape where sagebrush clings to ochre mesas.
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