VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Wyoming’s top oil and gas official last week said the people in Pavillion, Wyo., who have complained that drilling polluted their water are motivated by money.

“I really believe greed is driving a lot of this,” state Oil and Gas Supervisor Tom Doll told a meeting of fellow state regulators here. “I think they’re just looking to be compensated.”

Doll spoke to a full room at the midyear meeting of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, delivering a pointed and detailed critique of a December report from U.S. EPA confirming allegations that some groundwater in the area had been contaminated by fluid used in hydraulic fracturing of gas wells.

Doll said he and other state officials have concluded that the contamination EPA found in a monitoring well actually came from the drilling of the well itself.

“We believe the report is incomplete and bad science,” he said. MORE …