GILLETTE -- A series of artesian water well failures in the Powder River Breaks country has raised concerns that coalbed methane development could have profound and potentially hazardous impacts on water wells.

Several artesian, or spring-flowing, water wells recently have gone dry in the area , a wide swath of land centered on the Powder River between Gillette and Buffalo. In some cases, wells have come back to life as geysers shooting water and odorless, flammable methane gas into the air.

One such well on the Pee Gee ranch in northwestern Campbell County is still boiling with gas.

State regulators and industry officials say the events are not always caused by coalbed methane development. But when it can be proven that a well failure is the result of drilling and production activity, companies do ante up and fix the problem.

"When we know we've impacted a private water well we deal with that situation. We provide another water well or provide water, as per our contract, and that's the way we do business," said Bill Browne, operations manager for Marathon.

State and federal regulators require the companies to offer contracts to nearby landowners to replace or repair water wells they might impact. And in some cases, companies have replaced wells they didn't impact just to maintain good relations, according to Don Likwartz, director of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

But some say the contracts and regulations don't sufficiently address problems arising in the discontinuous and uncharted underground water systems in the basin . Some landowners who have experienced water well problems have had trouble getting help.

In one such case, Roland and Beverly Landry said their artesian well on the Powder River stopped flowing last September, and no one has taken responsibility. The couple has been hauling water in 1-gallon milk jugs from their neighbor's house since.

"We're not the only ones, and there's going to be more," Beverly Landry said.

Coalbed methane companies in the area refused to pay for a new well because the closest coalbed methane gas well at the time was some 4 to 5 miles away.

Casper geologist Wal t Merschat said the Landrys are victims of insufficient regulations and a reluctance among coalbed methane companies to take responsibility.

"If the industry were to listen to a geologist and not their financial engineers, then they'd be fixing wells all over the place. But they don't want to open up that can of worms," said Merschat.

State and federal regulations require companies to offer to repair or replace private water wells that are within a 1/2 mile radius of a coalbed methane gas well. The gas wells pump water from coal aquifers to release the methane molecules from the coal. Merschat said drawing down the aquifer can affect wells that are in the same aquifer, and it can also affect wells in sand aquifers in communication with the coal aquifer.

Merschat explained that the 1-mile "circle of influence" simply doesn't match the discontinuous nature of the basin's underground water systems. The standard, and a lack of detailed underground mapping, can leave domestic water well users high and dry when a problem arises, he said.

"I think there's just a massive movement of water vertically and horizontally that nobody really understands," Merschat said.

John Harju, interim administrator of the State Engineer's Ground Water Division, said he agrees that his agency and other regulatory agencies don't always have enough information to make a conclusive decision about what causes a particular well to stop working.

"Sometimes the information we have is limited, and other times we have a tremendous amount of reliable information," Harju said.

In the case of the Landry well, the State Engineer's Office determined that coalbed methane activity could not be ruled out as a possible cause. But it couldn't be proven as the cause, either, Harju said.

"We came up with several ideas, but I don't know that any were conclusive."