She has compiled a list of more than 900 products used in fracing, a process that breaks apart underground formations with a chemical stew to release the trapped gas. She also has compiled a list of health effects, including cancer and toxic damage to internal organs and skin.

She noted the handling of many of the chemicals calls for respirators, goggles and gloves, but makes no mention of what might happen to those living nearby.

The medical community suffers from the same deficit of research about what energy-field chemicals can do.

In Hoffmeister's most recent bout of debilitating illness, X-rays, MRIs and blood tests showed nothing. Neither did a visit to an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist. During her worst bouts, she has been prescribed antibiotics, the anti-anxiety drug Valium and Dramamine, which is used to treat dizziness. None of the medications helped.

Meanwhile, in rocky, scrub-covered, gas-rich area of Dry Hollow, south of Silt, numerous "For Sale" signs are posted alongside mailboxes on the Hoffmeister's road. Many have given up, moving from a hollow where compounds from wells tend to settle.

Garfield County has hired two oil and gas liaisons and an energy health and environment manager, whose jobs include fielding health or environmental complaints from residents.

"We listen very carefully to what they're saying. If it's something we can get out and measure and monitor we do," said liaison Jesse Smith.

Since Bill Barrett Corp. put extra emission-controls on the well near the Hoffmeister property, Dee has improved. But she still suffers when the tank valves are opened, or a problem like the fire releases gases. She said she lives in fear of these events in a home that whirrs with air purifiers and where she walks with a cane because she can no longer trust her balance.

"I've been made to feel like a hypochondriac, a liar," Hoffmeister said. "I now know you have no rights and no help."