Wyoming is an absolutely gorgeous state. I spent some time in Jackson Hole years back and it was sublime. But thanks to the relentless work of the natural gas industry, this mostly rural state now has a problem in common with cities like Los Angeles and New York City: smog.
The EPA’s current safety standard for ground-level ozone is 75 parts per billion (ppb), but preliminary data shows that Wyoming’s ozone levels were 124 ppb–exceeding the worst day in Los Angeles during all of 2010; 114 parts per billion. Where’s all this smog coming from in a state with fewer human residents than any other? Gas drilling. The gas industry is alive and well in Wyoming, and if you don’t take people or the environment into account (and the Big Gas doesn’t), it’s been a boon for the state’s economy.
Wyoming enjoys one of the nation’s lowest unemployment rates, 6.4 percent. And while many other states are running up monumental deficits, lawmakers are projecting a budget surplus of more than $1 billion over the coming year in this state of a half-million people (AP). But this profit comes at a price.
“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 told the AP.
High levels of ozone happen in the Upper Green River Basin only during the winter. They result from a combination of gas industry emissions, snow on the ground, bright sunshine and temperature inversions, in which cool air near the ground is trapped by a layer of warmer air. Pollution builds up during the day and becomes visible above the horizon as a thin layer of brown smudge — smog — by midafternoon (AP).
According to the Associated Press, residents living near the gas fields in the western part of this outdoorsy state are complaining of watery eyes, shortness of breath and bloody noses because of elevated ozone levels.
So what can be done about this? Communication, research and voicing opposition. If no one raises a voice against Big Gas then things will only get worse. Just because you live somewhere else doesn’t mean it’s not your problem. It is. If you don’t already live in a polluted city or town like I do (Los Angeles) then you soon will if you do not stand up and fight against polluters. It can work.
Even in Los Angeles efforts have been made to curb pollution and have had success.
The Port of Los Angeles has succeeded in making steep cuts in diesel emissions since 2008 when California’s Clean Trucks rules took effect, according to air emissions inventory. The joint Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach Clean Air Action Plan requires that each unit of cargo be moved with fewer emissions.
Because the measurements are on a per unit of cargo basis, the recession is not a factor in these figures. The Journal of Commerce reports that the program has been a success.
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