At the same time, both industry and government emphasized that methane naturally occurred in the province's groundwater. Alberta Environment noted that 906 water wells in the province had gas "assumed to be methane" in their water, and that nearly 26,000 water wells had coal seams present. That revelation merely alarmed Ernst. "It was all the more reason to do baseline testing before they drilled," she says. "They knew. All the companies should have tested for dissolved methane and gas composition."

Many of Ernst's clients in the oilpatch also started to pass on what she viewed as disturbing information by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and other sources about the scale of natural-gas contamination in groundwater in the province. Even a 2003 article in the Oilfield Review, a quarterly technical journal, noted poor gas-well construction combined with faulty cement casing routinely resulted in "leaks of gas into zones that would otherwise not be gas-bearing." It added that gas migration occurs everywhere — in "shallow gas wells in southern Alberta, heavy oil producers in eastern Alberta and deep gas wells in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains." An industry newsletter, GasTIPS, reported one Alberta study even found that 57% of wells drilled between a depth between 1,900 and 5,900 feet "develop leaks after the primary cement job."

Maurice Dusseault, a B.C.-based civil engineer, gas migration expert with 28 years' experience in the field and the author of some 400 articles on petroleum-related subjects, confirms that the seepage of natural gas from poorly cased oil and gas wells into groundwater is a well-documented problem. "We haven't been good stewards of our groundwater near gas wells," he says. "I don't blame the companies. I feel the EUB and other provincial regulatory agencies have been lax in protecting groundwater and in enforcement." The EUB, however, insists it "is extremely stringent in its enforcement of gas migration," and that cases of groundwater contamination are rare.

After doing more research, Ernst learned that isotopic fingerprinting was the only definitive way to investigate suspected groundwater contamination from gas wells. The technique, which identifies gases from different formations and then matches them to gases found in water samples, was pioneered by Karlis Muehlenbachs, a 62-year-old geochemist at the University of Alberta. Muehlenbachs even used the technique to clear a company of contamination charges during the Ludwig controversy. At Ernst's insistence, Alberta Environment finally ordered isotopic fingerprinting of four gas wells and three water wells in Rosebud, in March.

Shortly after the fingerprinting tests, McKee, the EUB's legal counsel, met with Ernst, on June 8, to discuss her case. Liberal MLA David Swann sat in as a witness, and Ernst taped the exchange.

"You are too intelligent and too capable...to just start bashing us,"said McKee. "I have learned that being reasonable doesn't work," replied Ernst. At the end, McKee promised Ernst an audience with the EUB, adding, "I want to have you reinvigorated and reinjected into the process."

Although Alberta Environment won't comment yet on the latest test results, Muehlenbachs says the situation is neither black nor white — and that the province's groundwater is no longer pristine. "We've been drilling for 70 years," he says. "There are leaks everywhere." In the Zimmerman case, Muehlenbachs suggests that contamination possibly resulted from industry activity, but no good baseline data on the methane content of the water exists. "It's ambiguous," he explains. In the Rosebud area, Muehlenbachs found propane and butane in several water wells, a clear signature of possible leaks from deeper gas formations. "Unless someone threw a Bic lighter down the well, it's a sure sign of contamination," Muehlenbachs says. But the lack of good baseline water data again clouds the issue. "What gas was there in the first place and how much was added — you have to guess."

Bev Yee, assistant deputy minister of Alberta Environment, said she cannot comment directly on any of the investigations, because they are incomplete and are currently under review by the Alberta Research Council. "We have established no direct ties to coal-bed methane," she insists.

Yee explained that the government introduced a new baseline water testing program, on May 1, but admitted that baseline data hadn't been "gathered consistently" in the past. When asked about a 2005 report, by Komex International Ltd., a global environmental consulting firm, that pointedly identified a "lack of monitoring wells" in Horseshoe Canyon and other oil and gas formations as "clearly evident," Yee replied: "I've taken that report into consideration." She added that the government will be looking at enhancing the monitoring network.

Yee says that the government currently has no requirement for companies to fingerprint their gas or to make that information publicly available, something Ernst, Muehlenbachs and other scientists consider an essential procedure. An independent scientific panel may soon review the topic, as well as all other standards associated with groundwater monitoring, Yee adds.

Ernst now suspects that shallow drilling and fracing for CBM have aggravated an existing problem: natural gas migration from shallow wells, as well as older wells, due to unprecedented activity. In the past four months, she says she has had about 100 calls from rural residents, and nearly half dealt with water contamination of some kind. "We have the right to safe water," she argues.

Liberal MLA Swann now accuses the Alberta government of outright negligence — and has called upon the EUB and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers to hold a one-day forum on natural-gas migration into groundwater. At a series of public meetings in rural Alberta, in June, he says he found "a high degree of skepticism and cynicism about government regulators."

To Muehlenbachs, resource exploitation in Alberta has simply galloped ahead of basic science on groundwater. He says that industry and government regulators really don't know enough about the state of groundwater in one of the most heavily drilled landscapes in North America. "They need to have some curiosity about how mother nature works and what happens when we fiddle with it."