This year, 29 journalism students from 18 universities traveled across the country. They conducted hundreds of interviews, reviewed thousands of pages of state and federal statutes and other records and built databases and data visualizations documenting the issues surrounding water pollution.

To see the full News21 report on “Troubled Water” and view the 30-minute documentary, go to troubledwater.news21.com. Watch a preview of the project here:

News21 investigates drinking water in America from News21 on Vimeo.

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Jeff and Rhonda Locker tour their old farm property in Pavillion, Wyoming. The home now has a cistern and underground tank with clean water because the well is contaminated with benzenes and other substances, which the couple believes is from the oil and gas activities on their land. (Photo by Lauren Kaljur/News21)

PAVILLION, Wyo. – Rhonda and Jeff Locker enjoyed hosting friends and family at their farm home in Pavillion, Wyoming. The 56 year old said she took pride in serving her guests water from the well on their land.

“It was the best I’d ever tasted,” Rhonda Locker said.

That changed in the early 1990s when the couple began to suspect something was wrong with their water. It would intermittently run black and release a strange odor, they said.

The Lockers were not alone. Similar complaints came from other residents near Pavillion – a town with little more than a couple hundred residents and an oil field.

Decades later, officials still can’t definitively identify the source of the contamination.

The Lockers, however, believe they know who is responsible. They are taking an oil and gas giant to court, claiming the company polluted their water and lied to them about it. They are seeking compensation after Rhonda Locker became ill.

In 2014, the couple filed suit against Encana Corp. for negligence, and the couple claimed the company convinced them to drink unsafe water and did not communicate water problems with them, according to court documents. The case is ongoing in U.S. District Court.

Encana officials deny any wrongdoing.

Couple tries to identify cause of mystery illness

The Lockers’ brown farmhouse sits between tall apple trees and has a view of the Rocky Mountains. Pavillion residents have learned to coexist with the dozens of gas wells on their hay and barley fields.

When the couple noticed changes in their water, they contacted Tom Brown Inc., a company that built and operated gas wells on their land. The company sent a hydrologist to test the Lockers’ wells.

The company assured them the contamination was not from their oil and gas activities, and there were no petroleum by-products in their water – and the Lockers believed them, they said. Tom Brown Inc. paid for a reverse osmosis water filtration unit for the home. In exchange, the couple signed an agreement releasing the company of any future liability.

“We wanted to believe them,” Rhonda Locker said. “I so badly wanted water to drink out of the faucet again. It was no fun to always bring jugs of water home, always having them on the laundry, on the washer machine – everywhere. And our house wasn’t that big, so It just got to me.”

Jeff Locker and his son still did not drink the water because they did not like the taste of it, but Rhonda Locker did.

“I just wanted to be able to take my vitamins and brush my teeth out of my own bathroom sink,” she said.

Four months after installing the filtration system, Rhonda Locker became ill. Her arms and legs tingled, she could not think clearly and she struggled to walk.

The couple became determined to find answers.

Rhonda Locker sought out numerous doctors, none of whom could give her a clear diagnosis for her mystery illness.

It was her declining health that lead the couple to file suit against Encana, the company that bought Tom Brown Inc.

Wyoming couple’s water problems launch national debate about oil and gas drilling from News21 on Vimeo.

EPA study suggests connection

The Environmental Protection Agency began an investigation into Pavillion groundwater in 2009, and it released a draft of its conclusions in 2011, pointing to the oil and gas industry as a possible culprit for the contamination.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry informed the couple their groundwater showed signs of contamination in 2010 and suggested the couple use an alternate water supply. This was the first time the Lockers were informed of specific contamination in their water since the problem began in 1992, they said.

It was not the first time someone knew of the contamination, however. According to court documents, Tom Brown Inc. tested the Lockers’ well in 2001 and found toluene – a harmful solvent oil and gas companies use that can cause “central nervous system depression and decreased memory,” according to World of Chemicals.

The EPA’s report confirmed Pavillion groundwater was contaminated with benzene, methane and other petroleum by-products. The lead author of the report said the contamination was most likely due to leakage from unlined pits carrying oil and gas wastewater.

Encana refutes the draft study, arguing that it was flawed science. They deny the chemicals in the Lockers’ well came from their activities, citing a number of other possible sources, in their official response to the EPA findings.

The company declined to comment on the court case since it is ongoing.

The well at the Locker family home near Pavillion, Wyoming, is contaminated with benzenes and other chemicals. (Photo by Lauren Kaljur/News21)

EPA’s study causes scrutiny

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., in a statement called the EPA’s draft study part of the agency’s “witch hunt” aimed at harming the oil and gas industry.

“The Obama Administration has done everything it possibly can to destroy domestic production of oil, gas and coal,” Inhofe told the Senate floor in 2012.

The issue has become part of a national debate over the potential effects of hydraulic fracturing in the oil and gas industry.

The industry is a boon to Wyoming, which is one of the top 10 oil and gas producers in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Coal, crude oil and natural gas are produced in all but one of the state’s counties.

While the EPA said it “stands behind its work and its data” in a 2013 news release, the agency handed over the groundwater investigation to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. Encana donated $1.5 million to the Wyoming Natural Resource Foundation for the state to fund the investigation and for a groundwater education campaign, according to the same release.

The state released a report in 2015 “discrediting” the EPA’s earlier report, according to a statement from the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The state’s report contended hydraulic fracturing had most likely not impacted the water supply.

The state of Wyoming did not return requests for comment.

Senior officials at the EPA had decided not to finalize the draft and hand the investigation over to Wyoming because of the “intense pressure from the oil and gas industry and the state of Wyoming,” said Dominic DiGiulio, the lead author of the EPA’s initial study.

“The findings affect hydraulic fracturing across the country,” said DiGuilio, a researcher at Stanford University. “That’s why the oil and gas industry was very defensive about the findings out there.”

DiGuilio released results from an independent, peer-reviewed investigation with Stanford University in 2016. It also concluded that the water contamination was due to the industry’s disposal of fracking waste into unlined pits.

In 2016, the EPA released a comprehensive national report that didn’t offer a conclusive answer to whether hydraulic fracturing effects water, and it suggested more testing.

Rhonda and Jeff Locker said they are happy they live in a new home with safe water in the Pavillion area of Wyoming. They are tangled in a legal battle over the source of contamination, which they believe came from oil and gas activity on their farm. (Photo by Lauren Kaljur/News21)

Couple still has unanswered questions

As Rhonda and Jeff Locker sit on the back porch on a warm summer evening, they still want answers.

The know there was something wrong with the water. In fact, the state of Wyoming started giving cisterns to residents with contaminated water in 2012. They just haven’t proven what caused it.

Without her medication, Rhonda Locker can’t walk properly. Her cognitive problems are becoming more severe. She feels much older than she should in her 50s, she said.

“It’s always, ‘Don’t hurt grandma, watch her legs,’ and stuff like that,” she said. “I did picture how much I was going to run around with them and do all these things with them because I was so active, and it didn’t happen that way.”

“In retrospect, if there’s anything I could change and go back,” Jeff Locker said. “I’d just soon not ever have heard the name Encana and Tom Brown.”

To see the full News21 report on “Troubled Water,” go to troubledwater.news21.com on Aug. 14.

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Nancy Colas is a small business owner from Newburgh, New York. She and her family tested above the Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum level for perfluorooctanesulfonic acid last year. (Photo by Elissa Nuñez/News21)

NEWBURGH, N.Y. – When Newburgh’s city manager declared a state of emergency last year after tests found dangerous levels of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid in the city’s water supply, Nancy Colas scheduled blood tests for everyone in her family.

“My 17-year-old, he pretty much grew up here, and he’s been drinking that water all his life,”  she said.

The Colas family tested well above the the maximum level allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency. PFOS, a dangerous chemical found in firefighting foam, has been linked to cancer and other medical problems.

“There are effects that I wonder how it’s going to affect us down the line,” Colas said. “Cognitively, are my children going to be OK as they get older?”

Newburgh, a poor city filled with black and Latino residents, is one of many communities of color whose water has been contaminated by nearby Superfund or hazardous waste sites. In this case, the Stewart Air National Guard Base leaked PFOS into the town’s lakes and reservoirs.

Colas, like a growing number of Newburgh residents, is suing the city of Newburgh for negligence, contending that city officials were long aware of the problem before they declared a state of emergency, putting residents at greater risk of illness.

“It hurts to know that they knew, and they didn’t say anything,” she said. “I’m sure there are people that knew.”

And much like other Newburgh residents, Colas also thinks that had she lived in a different town or been born a different race, she would’ve never been exposed to PFOS.

“It is an environmental justice issue because if we were sitting in Deer Park, Long Island, I don’t think it would have ever been an issue,” Colas said. “I don’t think there would have been contamination, period. Because someone would have said ‘not in my backyard.’”

The Hudson River runs alongside the city of Newburgh. (Photo by Elissa Nuñez/News21)––≠

Many residents, including city officials, said the Department of Defense would be more motivated to clean up the Superfund site if Newburgh were a whiter, more affluent town.

“It certainly feels like that might be part of it, because why are they ignoring us?” said Genie Abrams, a Newburgh City Council member. “Are they ignoring other communities, the wealthier communities, the whiter communities?

Some residents said town meetings meant to update residents are poorly publicized. Many still haven’t been blood tested, specifically in the Spanish-speaking community. The city government has posted materials in both Spanish and Creole on its website, but community activists said it’s not enough.

“For this level of danger, there should be letters being sent out to every single home periodically to update, and that’s not happening in English and Spanish,” said Kevindaryan Lujan, a Newburgh resident. “So this is an issue the community is concerned about. And there’s whole bulks of the community that are unaware of what’s going on.”

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is working to complete a multimillion dollar filtration plant to treat Newburgh’s poisoned water by October. State officials and environmental experts are pressing the Department of Defense to clean up contamination at the Superfund site.

“The federal and the state government have really been passing the buck to each other on this issue, no one really wants to take care of it,” Lujan said. “It’s kind of being put under the rug, and people are still scared.”

Newburgh will return to its original water supply in the fall when the filtration plant is fully constructed. “We need to have clean water here, it’s a basic human right for anyone, no matter what your income level is,” Abrams said.

To see the full News21 report on “Troubled Water,” go to troubledwater.news21.com on Aug. 14.

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A whitetail deer passes by a pond about 300 meters downstream of the Fenimore Landfill in New Jersey. (Photo by Karl Schneider/News21)

ROXBURY TOWNSHIP, N.J. – At first glance, Ledgewood Park in Roxbury Township, New Jersey, is the epitome of a small-town park. The fishing pond is stocked with bluegill and largemouth bass, a basketball court stretches along the gravel parking lot and a pristine-looking stream runs along hiking trails in the woods surrounding the park.

The stream, Ledgewood brook, eventually flows into the Raritan River. Environmental scientists have deemed it “impaired,” which means they found fewer insects in the stream – an indication something is wrong with the water. They’re concerned about the drinking water of 1.5 million New Jerseyans downstream.

“If I didn’t know there was a dump about 200 meters upstream, I would think this should get a perfect score,” said Bill Kibler, director of policy at the Raritan Headwaters Association, a nonprofit conservation group. “‘Impaired’ sounds pretty innocuous. It doesn’t sound all that bad, but in a headwater stream, frankly, that’s shocking.”

Water flows under the Fenimore Landfill before reaching the surface to form the brook near the park. The landfill made national news in 2013 when toxic gas leaked from the site, posing a health risk to the residents. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection decided to place an impermeable cap on the landfill.

“If you see the cap, it’s very attractive. It’s landscaped, you know, so it’s out of sight out of mind,” Kibler said. “It doesn’t address the issue of groundwater, which is something the Department of Environmental Protection has to address on this site.”

Elliott Ruga (left) and Bill Kibler check out the area surrounding the Fenimore Landfill in Roxybury Township, New Jersey. The landfill is capped, but these two environmental workers believe it wasn’t done correctly and is contaminating the waters surrounding the site. (Photo by Karl Schneider/News21)

Kibler is part of the Raritan Headwaters Association team that tests the health of the streams in the area. He has been monitoring the Ledgewood and Bound brooks in Roxbury Township that run down from the landfill.

More intensive testing takes place at groundwater monitoring wells closer to the dump. A 2015 groundwater report  shows the carcinogenic chemical benzene is contaminating the groundwater near the landfill. Levels of benzene above New Jersey’s groundwater quality standards have been found since 2011. Both have proven adverse effects on human health, including increased risk of cancer.

“The folks that live here in Roxbury, in particular the folks that live around the dump, have wells – private wells,” Kibler said. “Well, they’re relying on groundwater for their drinking water. That creates a real problem for the local folks.”

The state environmental department found conflicting results at sites near the landfill.

Kibler said he needs to know more about what’s in the landfill, which means the environmental protection department would have to reopen parts of the cap.

“Until we know what’s in the landfill, we don’t know what to test for,” Kibler said.

Bill Kibler explains the water systems underlying the Raritan Headwaters in New Jersey. Kibler and the Raritan Headwaters Association test waters for contaminants in the area. (Photo by Karl Schneider/News21)

The landfill opened in the 1950s and was temporarily shut down in 1979. The area sat deserted until 2001. It was sold to Strategic Environmental Partners, owned by Richard Bernardi, who reopened the landfill. A grand jury had convicted Bernardi for conspiring to bribe a city official seven years earlier.

New Jersey state law prohibits convicted felons from “holding even a ‘beneficial interest’ in licensed solid waste businesses,” according to an investigative report commissioned by the state. But, according to the report, the ban is ambiguous and can be “easily defeated by enterprising operators.”

In 2016, a state grand jury indicted Bernardi on charges related to his operations at the Fenimore Landfill. Environmental groups claim that Bernardi’s former landfill is leaking toxins that could reach the drinking water of millions of people.

The landfill has been a contentious topic for residents and local and state governments. Groups have urged the complete removal of the waste within the dump while officials argue that the current cap is sufficient. The landfill is currently under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Protection, essentially leaving the township’s hands tied.

“They (DEP) just showed up one day with state troopers and seized the property,” said Dan Kline, a councilman in Roxbury.

Kline proposed community well testing to the council, but he said they did not spend money on it last year.

Environmental groups such as the Raritan Headwaters Association monitor water in the area near the Fenimore Landfill in New Jersey. They are concerned about contaminants polluting the brook. (Photo by Karl Schneider/News21)

“Given the limited amount of things in the township’s control with this issue, why aren’t we doing more?” Kline said. “Giving money for well testing is a start, or giving money to the environmental committee is a good start, but it seems like there’s been a lot that we could do to alleviate people’s concerns.”

Community activists confronted Gov. Chris Christie about the landfill at two town hall meetings in 2014.

“I understand there is a group of people in Roxbury who want this stuff trucked out,” Christie said during one town hall. “Digging out that landfill and trucking it out will take years, and the disturbance of those materials will create more smell and a bigger problem.”

Even though the governor made his stance clear, Kibler said the landfill still poses a real threat to millions of people.

“Frankly, there are 1.5 million people downstream in New Jersey that don’t know this is their problem,” he said. “People in Roxbury know this is their problem. Folks downstream don’t realize that. That’s a bigger crime to me.”

To see the full News21 report on “Troubled Water,” go troubledwater.news21.com on Aug. 14.

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