The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it suspects hydraulic fracturing in a shallow natural gas well in Wyoming contaminated a town's drinking water. After three years of study, the agency concluded that chemicals found in the aquifer and in individual wells were consistent with those used in hydraulic fracturing.

The agency issued a report that will be open for public comment and scientific review. If it is finalized with the same conclusions, it could provide the first documented case in which “fracking” contaminated groundwater.

“Alternative explanations were carefully considered to explain individual sets of data,” the draft report says. “However, when considered together with other lines of evidence, the data indicates likely impact to ground water that can be explained by hydraulic fracturing.”

Inhofe comments