After his water well started pouring contaminated water — and a replacement well exploded — Wyoming rancher Louis Meeks became a one-man campaign to find the connection between his water woes and gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing nearby.

Editor's Note: ProPublica's Abrahm Lustgarten has covered the ongoing story of the environmental effects of natural gas drilling like no other reporter. In this long piece, Lustgarten tells how a determined Wyoming homesteader made a nation pay attention to what the search for gas was doing to the country's supply of underground water.