A close-up look at a Mead fracking operation

$A worker watches over a hydraulic fracturing operation at an...$
Brennan Linsley / Associated Press
A worker watches over a hydraulic fracturing operation at an Encana Corp. oil well near Mead. In the background is a tall canvas wall around the perimeter of the extraction site, which mitigates noise, light and dust coming from the operation during the drilling and completion phase, which generally takes a few weeks.
$Workers talk during a hydraulic fracturing operation, March 25, at...$
Brennan Linsley / Associated Press
Workers talk during a hydraulic fracturing operation, March 25, at an Encana Corp. well pad near Mead. Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," can greatly increase the productivity of an oil or oil well by splitting open rock with water and/or sand pumped underground at high pressure. To see more photos, visit www.timescall.com.

April 17, 2014 at 10:13 p.m.

MEAD — Workers bustle at an oil and gas drilling site near Mead, Colo., a town of about 3,800 people north of Denver.

The hydraulic fracturing operation, also known as “fracking,” and others like it pump hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, mixed with fine sand and chemicals, deep underground to split the rock, and make the oil — and dollars — flow.

But the drilling has come much too fast — and too close — for several communities, where fracking bans have been enacted out of concern about its possible impact on groundwater. The state government and the energy industry are challenging those prohibitions.