From the Glenwood Springs Post Independent (John Colson):

Dave Neslin, director of the COGCC, said the test on the Strudleys’ well was one of approximately 25 conducted on wells in the Silt Mesa area, where Antero Resources began drilling wells for natural gas last summer. The results of tests conducted on most of those wells have not come back yet, Neslin told the Post Independent. The Strudley well test results were reported in a Dec. 22, 2010, letter from COGCC Environmental Protection Specialist Linda Spry O’Rourke, who has an office in Rifle, to the Strudley family. The tests indicated that “there is no data that would indicate the water quality in your domestic well has been impacted by nearby oil and natural gas drilling and operations,” the letter stated. The 11-page letter was accompanied by nearly 250 pages of scientific data.

Beth Strudley said she doubts the report is correct and said she hired a private firm to conduct another test. “I certainly wouldn’t trust anything the COGCC does as far as I could throw them,” she declared, voicing a belief held by some that the COGCC is too closely tied to the oil and gas industry to be counted on to run unbiased tests.