In Wyoming, we have a saying: don't piss on my head and tell me it's raining.

Former Howard government minister Peter Reith encourages Australians to take a risk with coal seam gas. He justifies the risk by saying: ''There is no proven case of fracturing fluid, or hydrocarbons produced by fracturing, diffusing from the fractured zone into an aquifer.''

"When you turn on your tap and the water smells like diesel and explodes with methane, you know the water has been polluted." Credit:Glenn Hunt

Well, Mr Reith, come smell and drink the water on my farm, because it has been contaminated by fracking. I farm 364 hectares at Pavillion, Wyoming. The gas company Encana has drilled and fracked about 200 unconventional gas wells in our district. When I look out my window, I see gas wells and infrastructure across my land and my neighbour's.

In 2008, we noticed the water from our wells had turned bad. It changed colour and smelt of diesel. We asked the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate. They drilled monitoring bores and, in 2011, released a report that found the shallow and deep aquifers had been contaminated with chemicals linked to fracking and gas extraction.