Tell the EPA that you want clean Wyoming air

Cheyenne writer Edith Cook writes thoughtful op-ed pieces for our local paper, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Her favorite subject is the environment, mostly how Wyoming stacks up against the rest of the world when it comes to environmental protections, renewable energy, recycling, etc.

In Friday's WTE, she issued a call for the implementation of new Environmental Protection Agency clean air standards for outdated Wyoming power plants. These standards are opposed by our Governor and legislature and our entire Congressional delegation.

One of the themes running through Edith's piece is the traditional tug-of-war between the state's two major industries: Energy extraction and tourism. Tourists prefer pretty landscapes and clean air. Energy companies tend to dig up landscapes and pollute the air. When writers or musicians or artists bring up these uncomfortable facts, all heck breaks loose. 

But the EPA wants to hear from Wyomingites on these new clean air standards. You can bypass the middleman and write an e-mail or a letter to the following (thanks to Edith for this info). Be sure to comment by tomorrow (Aug. 26) and reference Docket ID No. EPA–R08–OAR–2012–0026:

visit http://www.regulations.gov and follow the simple instructions for submitting comments;

email comments to: r8airrulemakings@epa.gov;

fax comments to: (303) 312–6064;

snail-mail comments to: Carl Daly, Director, Air Program, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 8, Mailcode 8P– AR, 1595 Wynkoop Street, Denver, Colorado 80202–1129.

Wyoming Outdoor Council's Frontline investigates smog problems in the oil and gas fields

From the WOC Frontline:

Clean air in Wyoming has perhaps been taken for granted over the years. But, as unbelievable as it may seem, in the second decade of the 21st century, Wyoming is facing a smog problem. Click here to read the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s winter issue of Frontline.

Laramie River station one of the nation's dirtiest power plants

The EPA may not be working very effectively when it comes to protecting our air and water. But it will be totally toothless if the all-Republican Wyoming Congressional delegation gets its way.

From WPR:

Wyoming is home to one of the nation’s dirtiest power plants, according to a new study by the Environmental Integrity Project. The report examined emissions reports from power plants around the country and found that Basin Electric’s Laramie River station is one of the top 10 emitters of arsenic, chromium, nickel and selenium. Those are all toxic heavy metals.

FMI: http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/wyoming-home-one-one-countrys-filthiest-power-plants#.TuJLpe5c63Y.email

Julene Bair in New York Times: Biggest threat to Ogallala Aquifer is corn farming, not XL pipeline

Julene Bair

Essayist Julene Bair moved away from southeast Wyoming a few years back. We still miss you, Julene!

Her words resonate, no matter where she plants herself. She grew up a farmer’s daughter in Kansas. She’s spent most of her writing life exploring that legacy, most notably in “One Degree West: Confessions of a Plainsdaughter,” which won the Willa Award from Women Writing the West. She’s won creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming Arts Council.

Julene, now living in Longmont, Colo., penned an essay for yesterday’s New York Times. The topic is a timely one – the Keystone XL pipeline. Opponents contended that any leak from the pipeline would permanently contaminate the land and water in the sensitive Nebraska Sand Hills. The Ogallala Aquifer rests beneath the sand hills and 174,000 square miles of crop and range land from South Dakota to Texas. Problem is, chemicals used for corn growing have already polluted the aquifer. In the essay, “Running Dry on the Great Plains,” Julene makes a plea for a saner dry-land farming policy:

Why haven’t viable environmental groups formed to protect the Ogallala? Because corn contributes so much to the economy that its reign is seldom questioned. Federal subsidy payments to corn growers and the federal mandate to produce ethanol underwrite the waste and pollution.

These subsidies should end. When the farm bill comes up for reauthorization next year, Congress should instead pay farmers to reduce their dependence on irrigation and chemicals. The eastern Nebraska climate is moist enough to grow corn without irrigation. That is how the University of Nebraska football team came to be the Cornhuskers. And the more arid High Plains to the west are known as the nation’s breadbasket because wheat, a drought-tolerant crop, thrives there.

Read the rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/01/opinion/polluting-the-ogallala-aquifer.html

Julene’s bog: www.julenebair.com or find her work on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julene-Bair-Author-Essays-Memoirs/309113472445879

EPA Chief: Pavillion tests are "of concern" and fracking may be the culprit

This just in from the Casper Star-Tribune:

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says high levels of methane, benzene and chemicals found in two Wyoming water-monitoring wells are “of concern” and said hydraulic fracturing may be responsible.

In an interview set to air on the Bloomberg cable news channel Saturday and Sunday, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency discussed results from two monitoring wells in the Pavillion area with state and local officials. The well data was released to the public last week.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/epa-chief-wyoming-water-well-results-of-concern/article_0aacd635-c62a-5eae-9f79-e6ae14eb1906.html#ixzz1e3vm0Cwo

I know that Rep. Cynthia "Kill the EPA" Lummis will pooh-pooh these findings to cater to her Know Nothing base, but the finding are the results of sound science and should be listened to. Do we really want to poison our fellow Wyomingites, such as John Fenton, a Pavillion rancher and member of Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens? John and his family were featured in the documentary “Gasland” (go to www,gaslandthemovie.com)