Wyoming officials issued an unprecedented health alert Wednesday in a rural gas-drilling area for a buildup of ozone — usually a summertime air pollutant in urban areas.
The Pinedale area had high ozone readings a week after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criticized the federal Bureau of Land Management for planning thousands of new gas wells in the area without adequate air-quality protection.
Jackson Hole Star Tribune - 'The last place this should be'
Dave Smith, a broadcast engineer and electronics expert who owns his own business, has a shop on the south end of town, just off the main drag. Born and raised in Pinedale, he's witnessed the impacts of gas drilling on his once "sleepy little town," he said. And he hopes the air quality warning alarms some people, because he believes people in the area should be alarmed.
"It's interesting," Smith said. "When I grew up here we hated environmentalists. We hated tree huggers. We had no use for any environmental agency. You know, the word environmentalist was a fightin' word. If somebody walked up and introduced himself as an environmentalist, it was OK to punch him in the nose."
He also hated the concept of protected "wilderness" when he was growing up here, he said, because this area was so pristine, it was silly to think such a designation was necessary.
"I've kind of changed my mind a little about that. I still don't agree with the rabid tree huggers, you know, 'Save everything,' I don't agree with that. But right now, if it wasn't for the conservation groups and environmental groups, we would have a living hell going on here."
The air pollution is obvious to anybody from here, Smith said, because one need only to look at the sky and at the sunsets. But there are other impacts of the drilling that are not as obvious, including the benzenes and hydrocarbons that are making their way into the ground.
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