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But now, many of those animals can no longer be found on Bracken's property. She estimates that it hosts less than one-tenth of the animals it once did.

Walking along West Divide Creek last month, Bracken stops at the site of a beaver dam.

"A couple of weeks ago, I was down here filming an adult and two juveniles feeding and working on the dam, but I haven't seen them now in over a week," Bracken said. "I saw a muskrat, and a lot of times muskrat will move into an abandoned beaver house, but I haven't seen the muskrat even, so it looks like this area's all been abandoned."

Other areas are completely void of vegetation.

"That happens with a methane blowout, because what happens is it doesn't just exit into the creek, it exits wherever there's a fault pathway, a network of faults that it can follow from the bottom of the well or their production zone through the geology to the surface," Bracken explained.

At the creek, there is more evidence that leads Bracken to believe natural gas from drilling is leaking to the surface. She pointed out a corrosive-looking substance that could be an acid, precipitate or bacteria of some kind, a vent-hole in the mud where some gas has potentially been coming up, a bluish-black film floating on the creek and a strange foam in the water.

"There's like a big chunk of what looks like old, dried-out styrofoam," Bracken said. "You can tell it's gassy and it's kind of hard and it's discolored."

It's a scene that's all too familiar to Bracken. They are indicators that also appeared in 2004, when gas from an EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) well seeped into the creek.

The seep resulted in a $371,200 fine by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission -- the biggest fine the state had ever handed to an energy company -- and a temporary moratorium on drilling. But the company has started drilling again and is now about halfway through a plan to drill 41 wells in the vicinity of the seep and Bracken's property.

Concerned that there might be another gas seep in the creek, Bracken recently appealed to the county commissioners to have additional testing done on her property.

But the air, water and soil testing for possible effects of drilling did not turn out as planned. The state oil and gas regulator sent to Bracken's home to do the testing became confrontational with her, and she asked him to leave before much testing had been done, Bracken said.

Bracken says Bob Chesson, an environmental protection specialist with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, seemed irritated about having to do the tests, dismissed her concerns and insulted her at one point with foul language.

Doug Hock, a spokesman for EnCana, stressed that the company can't do anything more unless there's scientific evidence that something really is wrong in the creek.

"Everything that we do has to be based on science," Hock said. "There have been numerous tests done, both by EnCana and the Oil and Gas Commission, and she's asked the county for further testing, and we encourage that. If there is a problem, we certainly want to know about it, but we have to respond to the facts, and the science to this point shows that there is no indication of any kind of problems or issues related to our operations."

'They can do whatever they want'

One of Bracken's main concerns is the effect that the area's energy development is having on her health and the health of her mother. Besides the concerns about whether gas or other chemicals from drilling have contaminated their water well, Bracken is also worried about the air pollution caused by drilling activities.

The health issues experienced by people living next to oil and gas drilling activities include not being able to breathe in as deeply as before, difficulty smelling or tasting things, headaches, dizziness, respiratory problems, asthma, acute pain in the tendons and joints, falling unconscious, and illnesses including cancers and neurological problems. In Bracken's case, her mother's sinus passages swell shut and her eyes weep overnight.

"She won't be able to open her eyes in the morning, she'll have to feel her way to the bathroom and flush her eyes with warm water until they open, and that's just outrageous to me," Bracken said. "They burn tens of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel 150 feet from someone's home and there's no emissions standards, there's nothing. They're exempted from anything. They can do whatever they want."

Tara Meixsell, a landowner who lives north of Silt, said the symptoms described by people in Garfield County who live near the energy development are similar to those described by people in other parts of the country and the world who are also in the midst of oil and gas development.

"When you talk to your neighbor and you find out that they're having the same problem that you've been suffering from, and then you find another neighbor, and then you find other people coming down to testify on legislation, and they're all having similar problems, that's when I didn't have a heck of a lot of doubt in my mind that these things were frighteningly real," Meixsell said.

But many of the landowners who have experienced health problems they believe are related to oil and gas drilling have not been able to conclusively show that their symptoms were a result of the energy activities.

"You have to have a link. There has to be a link between how you were exposed and what you feel," Meixsell said.

One reason it's hard to prove that residents' ailments are connected to the gas drilling activities is that industry is not required to report the chemicals used in the drilling and hydraulic fracturing processes. That may change under new oil and gas regulations proposed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, although industry has argued against making the chemicals public to protect its proprietary interests.

In cases where drilling has been linked to health ailments, the road to get there has often been long and tortured. One couple in Garfield County had their water well explode after fracturing activities began on the neighboring property, and they could light their water on fire because of the levels of methane, but the initial tests showed the methane was naturally occurring. It wasn't until the woman developed a rare adrenal gland tumor and pursued her case with the help of prominent scientist Theo Colburn that more tests were completed showing that methane and other chemicals had in fact gotten into their water because of the drilling activities.

Health problems

Other residents have had almost instantaneous health reactions related to the drilling activities. When Dee Hoffmeister and her husband returned from a vacation in Minnesota in 2005, there was already a rig at work on their property. They knew the rig was coming, but what they didn't expect were the odors and fumes emanating from the well pad. Within 15 minutes of returning to their house, Dee Hoffmeister became unconscious.

"I got headaches and started feeling kind of nauseous and my lungs were bothering me, and then after that, I just passed out," she said.

After that incident, Hoffmeister moved in with her daughter in Glenwood Springs and sought medical treatment. It took eight months before Hoffmeister felt well enough to return to her home.

"I was so weak and dizzy, I had to hang on to somebody or furniture to be able to walk," Hoffmeister said. "I couldn't function mentally. It was hard for me to think, let alone do anything."

Since her return, Hoffmeister continues to have medical problems she believes are associated with the ongoing energy development near her home, burning and itching in her feet, pains, dizziness and memory problems. In 2007, a condensate tank on the well pad near Hoffmeister's house caught fire, causing her to become ill again and sending her to the hospital.

Other residents' ailments have been less immediate, if not less dramatic. About two years after drilling began on his property south of Silt, Rick Roles found that his body simply shut down.

"My body seized completely up in the fall of 2004. I couldn't reach my face to eat. I couldn't walk. I could get places, but it wasn't what you'd call walking -- sliding your feet around a little at a time to get where you have to go," Roles said.

Roles quit his job and started seeing an acupuncturist and a masseuse to help get him back on his feet in the again. In the meantime, he also had blood tests performed that showed high levels of volatile organic compounds and benzene in his blood.

Because of his ongoing medical issues, Roles hasn't held a job since 2005.

"Now, I just find it hard to go to a prospective employer and tell them, 'Here's the deal -- I'm a little disabled more or less from the chemical poisoning and I have a lot of nerve damage, but I really need the work, but if I exert myself too hard, my body's going to shut down. It could take anywhere from a week to six months to get it healed up enough that I can come back,'" Roles said. "Nobody's going to hire you. There's no way, because the first couple days or something you could exert yourself too much and not be able to make it back."

For now, he survives financially by doing odd jobs and some sharecropping to pay for the feed for his livestock. Even so, he says he can't work more than two to three hours at a time.

"I've dealt with it for four or five years now, and I've learned to get along, because if I don't get around, I just don't get around, I don't get nowhere, and if I don't get anywhere, I'm stuck here breathing this gas, so I've gotta get the hell off this mountain," Roles said. "That's the thing that pushes me every day, is that I've got to get down for a little while because I've got to take care of the place, but if I can't keep myself healthy, I can't take care of the place, so I do what I can a couple hours a day and stay gone as long as possible where I don't get myself too far behind on what I need to get done."

Quality of life

The energy boom has taken a toll on Garfield County in other ways, as well, as many longtime residents have fled the area and oil and gas workers have taken their place.

"I know of people who have left the valley or moved elsewhere, have lost their places because of methane gas poisoning their springs and their wells," said Paula Fothergill, an angler and longtime Western Slope resident. "In fact, I know a couple who lost their dream property because they were so inundated with methane on their property that oil and gas basically evacuated them out because they were afraid that their house was going to blow up because it was so bad."

Fothergill said the energy boom has also changed the quality of life in communities throughout the Western Slope. She noted that drug abuse problems, particularly with methamphetamine, have become a larger issue. The workers also crowd out tourists who normally would have visited during the fall hunting season because many of them live in motels.

"When you're walking by with your granddaughter or daughter and these guys are hanging out in their pickup trucks calling out all sorts of names, or having drug abuse as a new issue in an area that really hasn't had to deal with it, it's a little staggering, especially something like meth," Fothergill said.

Hoffmeister said the traffic and noise associated with the development have also changed the quality of life in the area. "Wherever you drive, it used to be beautiful and just wonderful, and now you have big cutout areas where there's well pads and condensate tanks. It's just destroyed our whole countryside here. It's not the same at all."

To help to address some of these issues, Garfield County has created an energy advisory board that includes energy representatives and local residents to allow them to air their concerns.

"If some of the neighbors are unhappy about the traffic or the noise or the dust or whatever, they bring it to the board, we talk about it and try to deal with it. That's been a huge help here, I think," said Williams spokeswoman Donna Gray.

Some residents note positive impacts to economy

Michael Meskin, the owner of a local ranch and the Base Camp Cafe in Rifle, Colo., said the energy companies can be difficult to deal with sometimes, but he has generally had good experiences. "There's a lot of gas up there and they're going to drill no matter what. ... It's not that unpleasant, but it's somebody else on your ranch that you're usually not used to. They are respectful, and if we have disagreements, they have been very good about ironing them out," he said.

Like many area businesses, Meskin's cafe has benefited from the gas boom. "Down here at the restaurant, they've been wonderful. They've increased our business quite a bit. They're here at 6:15 in the morning. The workers are polite, energetic. There's a lot of chemistry that goes down, so it's sort of exciting."

Gary Miller, the owner of Miller's Dry Goods in Rifle, agreed that the workers have brought new energy and business to the community. "A year and a half and two years ago, it seemed like the gas well worker that we were attracting, pardon me, but it was rough, it was a very rough group, and a lot of topics of conversation seemed to center around violence, and it wasn't real pleasant," Miller said. "Now, the people that we're attracting are much more professional, they're establishing roots, they're bringing families from here and there, but they still for the most part have families back home, but it has changed. They are much more professional in the clientele that they're hiring, so it doesn't seem like the industry is as desperate as it was two years ago, and I like that. I like it a lot better."

Miller said his business has picked up since the boom began, but it's still not up to the level it was during oil shale's heyday. "It's getting closer to the business that we did during the oil shale boom," Miller said. "It still isn't there, but it's getting closer all the time. So, it has improved, but we weathered a long storm to get here -- a long storm. It was just not real healthy, businesswise, in Rifle for a long time."

One of the things local officials are concerned about is ensuring that Garfield County's economy stays robust even after the energy boom has gone bust. County commissioner Tresi Houpt said that it's important to ensure that the region's other economic drivers -- agriculture, tourism and hunting -- are not damaged or driven out by the drilling boom.

"There are many different economic interests that we need to continue to nurture, enhance and support as we see energy development continue to grow," Houpt said. "And that's why it's so important to have appropriate regulations in place to make sure that the other economic interests in Garfield County can survive once the oil and gas industry packs up and leaves."

Bill Dvorak, an outfitter based in Nathrop, Colo., said the energy boom has also hurt many small, service-based businesses that can't compete with the high wages paid by the energy industry.

"It's very hard for individual businesses to survive because they can't find help that they can afford to pay. Basically, a lot of businesses, if they can't keep going just with the entrepreneur, the owner doing it, they've had to quit because they can't afford to pay the help the kind of wages that the oil and gas industry is paying," Dvorak said.

But Jeanice Freeman, owner of the Ranch House Mercantile in Rifle, said she hasn't had a problem competing with the energy companies' wages and she gets a lot of business from energy workers because she carries flame-retardant clothes. Freeman and her husband moved to the area four years ago when he got a job in the gas fields.

"It's been really good to Rifle's economy," she said.

Gable is an independent energy and environmental writer in Woodland Park, Colo.

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