By John Colson/Post Independent

Spokesmen for a natural gas company and the state agency in charge of overseeing oil and gas operations in Colorado said this week that they are doing their best to investigate the five-year-old West Divide Seep case.

And, they pledged, they will continue to do so.

A representative of the EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) company, which was operating gas wells in the Divide Creek area when the seep occurred in 2004, said it has been continuously investigating the causes of the seep and the extent of the “plume” of contaminated water.

EnCana spokesman Doug Hock conceded that representatives of the company have met only once recently with West Divide Creek resident Lisa Bracken, who lives in the area of the seep and is worried it may poison her water well, among other effects.

Bracken has vocally demanded increased testing and monitoring of the water in the area. In 2008, she reported observing apparent surface seeps that were not detected in 2004. And on Nov. 16, she told the Garfield County Commissioners that EnCana had inspected her property only once since July, despite directions from state officials that EnCana should work diligently to get to the root of the matter.

“We did have just one face-to-face with her,” said Hock. But he added that company personnel have exchanged “multiple e-mails back and forth with her” about the seep, the investigation and other matters.

The company’s researchers and consultants have taken samples from eight locations, installed 23 monitoring wells and sampled water on Bracken’s property, much of it on a quarterly basis, he said.

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