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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Brady is known as the “heart of Texas” because it sits at the geographic center of the state. This tiny, rural town is home to 5,400 residents. (Photo by Elizabeth Sims/News21)

BRADY, Texas – Tony Groves cannot get clean drinking water for his city.

Brady, a historic city proudly known as the “heart of Texas,” has the second-most contamination violations in the country from the radium that has seeped into its drinking water for decades, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. And this tiny, rural community is running out of options to fix the problem.

The radium is naturally occurring in the Hickory Aquifer, the city’s only drinking water source. Groves, Brady’s mayor, knows concerns of cancer, kidney damage and birth defects from the radium drive many residents to buy case after case of bottled water.

“There’s a lot of bottled water sold in Brady to different people, both for convenience of drinking the water and for concern,” Groves said. “I drink the (tap) water. It’s just a matter of personal integrity, I guess, that says ‘I can’t get you any better water than this, so I’m gonna drink the same water you’re drinking.’”

In fact, water bottles are just a way of life for many of Brady’s 5,400 residents. Children take water bottles to school every day so they do not have to drink from the fountains.

“The kids are aware,” said Angie Borrego, a first grade teacher at Brady Elementary School and lifelong Brady resident. “There will be times when the kids will leave (their water bottle) at home, and they’ll be like, ‘Oh gosh, I don’t have my water, and I’m not going to go to the water fountain,’ because they are drilled that this water is not safe.”

The “Clean Water For Texas” sign is displayed outside of Brady’s water treatment plant. Brady has the second-highest number of contaminant violations for the naturally occurring radium in its drinking water. (Photo by Elizabeth Sims/News21)

The city made progress in correcting the problem by building a system to mix its groundwater with water from the nearby Brady Lake. However, the success was short lived as a multiyear drought nearly dried up the lake, forcing the city to shut down its $20 million investment in 2015.

The radium levels spiked once again, violations poured in and notices went out with the water bills month after month. The notices became so common, some residents said they just throw them out.

“We’ve gotten a lot of notices from the city saying that the amounts of radium or the amounts of whatever – honestly, I haven’t even read them. I just know it’s bad, “ said Melissa Regeon, a Brady resident and a teacher’s aide at Brady High School.

Since the drought, the city has been planning a $22 million water system overhaul to finally bring clean water to residents. However, the state considers Brady an “economically distressed area” because its median household income is far below average. The city’s economy relies heavily on hunting at local ranches and fracking sands sales from mines surrounding the area.

“That makes us eligible for grants, so funds are very significant in paying for that project,” Groves said. “Otherwise, we would be severely financially impacted by doing this process.”

Brady set its sights on Texas’s Economically Distressed Areas Program, a $250 million fund distributing $50 million every two years to help cities such as Brady afford major infrastructure projects.

City officials hoped the grant would cover, at best, 85 percent of the water system project. However, three things stand in the way of the funds: Brady is not the only applicant city. This $50 million is the program’s final allocation. And state senate committees have rejected a bill to renew the program’s budget.

Amy Greer, a local farmer at Winters Family Beef, walks on her ranch’s property line. Greer’s family is working with city officials to prepare easements for a new water system. (Photo by Elizabeth Sims/News21)

“If we don’t get it this time, and the state doesn’t reauthorize that program, I don’t know what we’ll do,” said Amy Greer, a sixth-generation farmer at the locally operated Winters Family Beef.

Her family is collaborating with the city on easement agreements. Part of the plan includes upgrading the aging distribution pipes throughout the community if the funds for the project come through.

“I really want our state legislators to know how terrible it is that they are not renewing a program that will help small rural communities face and tackle these kind of massive health and safety problems,” Greer said. “I’m just ashamed of them.”

Texas legislators deferred the final allocation to the state’s 2019 budget, further complicating matters for the city – already under a strict timeline from the EPA to fix its radium problem. Greer worries the EPA will take over the system entirely or the city will end up with no water, but Groves stands by the city’s ability to take care of residents.

“Nobody understands their problems better than we do, so nobody can figure out a solution better than we can,” Groves said.

Groves said the city will find another way to get funding if the grant falls through, and he is confident residents will support their efforts to provide clean water, even if water rates have to go up.

“If it needs it, we’re all for it. Let’s go. Giddy up,” said Joe Evridge, a Brady resident and co-owner of D and J’s Good Ole Days Antiques and Oddities. “How are they going to pay for all that? They’ve got to go get some revenue somewhere. So there’ll be an adjustment, I’m sure. But that’s just life. Deal with it. What can you do?”

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Experts say Cape Cod’s sandy soils make the groundwater especially susceptible to contamination, a factor in Hyannis’ recent contamination that resulted in a 2016 drinking water health advisory. (Photo by Rachel Konieczny/News21)

HYANNIS, Mass. – When Hyannis officials discovered that unacceptable levels of contaminants from firefighting foam had leaked into the city’s water supply, they took action.

Officials immediately provided cases of water to 18,000 residents of the Cape Cod community and spent $6 million to install an activated carbon filtration system. Now, they are cleaning the contamination site.

Phil Brown, a professor of sociology and health sciences at Northeastern University, praised the response after the city discovered the contamination in 2007.

“The local government has been incredibly responsive,” Brown said. “They’ve done their best to use a filtration system, to educate people and to come speak to public forums to help people understand that they are doing a lot working to shut down (contaminated) wells in the community.”

Brown leads the university’s Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute and recently worked with the Environmental Working Group, a national organization specializing in toxic chemicals research, to create a national interactive map that cross references the locations of public water systems with known per- and substance contamination. These substances, man-made and toxic to humans, prove difficult to remove from the environment and are found in a variety of stain-resistant, waterproof and non-stick products.

The map combines federal drinking water data with documented cases of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance contamination from manufacturing plants, military air bases, civilian airports and fire training sites, according to the project’s website.

“A lot of (regulation) does have to be done at the local level because local water districts are where we’re measuring a lot of this,” Brown said. “We’re actually very pleased to see the level of interest by the local government.”

But some Hyannis residents hesitate to drink the tap water, which officials have deemed safe.

“After the whole Flint thing, I woke up one morning, and they said the Hyannis Water System is contaminated, too, so we have to lay off (the water) until they fix it,” resident Calvin Wiggins said.

Calvin Wiggins has lived in Hyannis, a community in Cape Cod, for 20 years. He buys bottled water for drinking because he doesn’t trust the water there. (Photo by Rachel Konieczny/News21)

Wiggins, who moved to Hyannis from Jamaica 20 years ago, said he continues to buy bottled water for drinking but uses the tap water for showering and washing dishes.

“It is a little expensive to buy bottled water. But at the same time, you’ve got to work it into your budget,” Wiggins said. “You’ve got to pay for the water anyway, so add a little more to it. I make sure I’m on the safer track.”

Wiggins said he moved to Hyannis to achieve economic prosperity. He relied on his tailoring experience in Jamaica and now owns and operates his own upholstery company while working as a part-time musician. Known as the “Capital of the Cape,” Hyannis leads Cape Cod’s commercial and transportation sectors while capitalizing on its summertime tourist industry.

Experts say Cape Cod’s sandy soils make the groundwater especially susceptible to contamination, a factor in Hyannis’ recent contamination that resulted in a 2016 drinking water health advisory.

“Cape Cod is a deposit of a glacier 15,000 years ago and basically comprised of sand outwash and a sandy deposit,” said Thomas Cambareri, director of water resources for the Cape Cod Commission. “It’s very porous, highly permeable sands that comprise Cape Cod.”

Cambareri, a hydrogeologist, said the county is trying to better understand the contamination and how to effectively clean it up.

The Silent Spring Institute first discovered these emerging contaminants on Cape Cod in 2009, but they didn’t reach unacceptable levels until the EPA raised its standards. The institute concluded the contamination in Hyannis came from aqueous film-forming foam, commonly used at military bases and firefighting academies. These findings helped researchers and officials determine the source of the contamination: the Barnstable County Fire and Rescue Training Academy.

Laurel Schaider, a research scientist at the Silent Spring Institute who has tested Hyannis water, said the contamination problem is twofold.

“When we talk about the firefighting foams getting into the wells, that’s related to environmental contamination. When the foams are used, they can run off into the soils and then ultimately percolate down into the groundwater,” Schaider said. “When we’re talking about household wastewater, we know that (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are used in many household items, such as stain-resistant carpets, furniture and nonstick cookware.”

Brown said researchers have a long way to go.

“There is a lot of work that needs to be done in green chemistry to find chemical alternatives that are safer,” Brown said.

In addition to finding chemical alternatives, Hyannis is exploring other ways to help ensure residents are drinking safe water.

“One approach is the trend toward more municipal water supplies,” said Mark Forest, chairman of the Cape Cod Conservation District.

While less than 20 percent of residents rely on private wells, Forest said they can better ensure their safety by hooking up to the municipal water supply.

Forest praised the Cape’s advancements thus far, highlighting one development being tested at the Joint Base Cape Cod military site.

Mark Forest, chairman of the Cape Cod Conservation District, praised the response to water contamination in the area. (Photo by Rachel Konieczny/News21)

“One innovative way of dealing with this (contamination) is called permeable reactive walls,” Forest said. “What the wall does is it sort of intercepts pollution as it moves along the surface or just below the surface of groundwater.”

According to the EPA, the walls will be introduced once data from the military site has been collected and analyzed.

Barnstable County Administrator Jack Yunits, who oversees the fire training academy, said the academy stopped using the foam in 2007 after learning of its potential harm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said studies have suggested that exposure could cause cancer and low birth weights in infants.

“Now we’re in the process of cleaning up the site,” Yunits said. “We’ve removed a lot of the contaminated soils, and we have a treatment system out there where we try to grab the water before it gets to the wells and run it back.”

Yunits said he hopes the federal government better regulates these emerging contaminants.

“I just wish they’d deal with it like they did with the Agent Orange problem and start to address people’s concerns,” Yunits said. “I don’t think (these contaminants are) going to be an epidemic of proportion that Agent Orange was if we control it. But if it starts to become a problem for mothers and kids, then we’ve got an issue.”

In June, Barnstable County agreed to pay the town of Barnstable $2.95 million for reimbursement associated with the contamination from the chemicals used in the firefighting foam at the academy. The town of Barnstable, Hyannis’ neighbor to its north, owns the academy. Both the town of Barnstable and the county have filed separate lawsuits against the foam manufacturers, including industrial giant 3M. The lawsuits are currently in federal court, Yunits said.

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