Wyoming's Smog Exceeds Los Angeles' Due to Gas Drilling
USA Today
9 March 2011
By Wendy Koch
Rural Wyoming, known for breathtaking vistas, now has worse smog than
Los Angeles because of its boom in natural gas drilling.
Residents who live near the gas fields in the state's western corner
are complaining of watery eyes, shortness of breath and bloody noses,
reports the Associated Press. The cause is clearer than the air: local
ozone levels recently exceeded the highest levels recorded in the
biggest U.S. cities last year.
Preliminary data show the region's ozone levels last Wednesday got as
high as 124 parts per billion, which is two-thirds higher than the
Environmental Protection Agency's maximum healthy limit of 75 parts per
billion and above the worst day in Los Angeles all last year, 114 parts
per billion, AP reports. On March 1, the ozone levels hit 116 parts per
billion.
Last year, too, Wyoming's gas-drilling area had days when its ozone
levels exceeded Los Angeles' worst for 2009.
Yet, the Cowboy State is prospering. It has one of the nation's lowest
unemployment rates, 6.4 percent, and is expected to run a budget
surplus this year.
"They're trading off health for profit. It's outrageous. We're not a
Third World country," said Elaine Crumpley, a retired science teacher
who lives just outside Pinedale, Wyo., told the AP.
In the Upper Green River Basin, at least one daycare center called off
outdoor recess, and state officials urged the elderly, children and
people with respiratory conditions to avoid strenuous or extended
outdoor activity.
Gas industry officials say they're trying to curb smog by reducing
truck traffic and switching to drilling rigs with pollution control
equipment, and they report fewer emissions contributing to smog than in
2008, reports the AP. On Monday, Gov. Matt Mead discussed with state
regulators and industry representatives what else companies can do.