Tag: Wyoming
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More than a Decade later, Pavillion Residents Continue to Face Complications due to Contaminated Water
Jeff and Rhonda Locker look out across a cut alfalfa field. Newly cut rows of alfalfa stretch into the distance. Clean mountain air blows down from the Wind River Range. Nearby, two massive tanks and other oil and gas infrastructure tower over everything in view. Pipes come out of the ground, snaking into various pieces…
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Working to Prove Accountability: A Hydrogeologist’s Perspective on the Pavillion Water Crisis
Mike Wireman, a hydrogeologist, has spent the last five years trying to understand what is causing the Pavillion water crisis in relation to oil and gas development.
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Pavillion Community Still Waiting on a Solution for Clean Drinking Water
Residents impacted by leaking wells look to Encana and the state of Wyoming for a solution. Evelyn stood on her deck overlooking a patchwork of green farmland and brown pastures stretching out to the low, dry hills on the horizon. Beyond them, mountains rose above the dusty brown foothills. Dozens of natural gas wells and…
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Lax Permitting, Poor Construction Lead to Groundwater Contamination
Thirty years after faulty gas wells and unlined holding ponds began contaminating groundwater, residents of Pavillion, Wyoming, still can’t drink the water. Sue Spencer, a hydrogeologist based in Laramie, Wyo, looks down from a sandy bluff on a two-football-field-sized swath of cleared land that designates a capped natural gas well. Two men in unmarked blue…
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Forging Allyships in a Time of Adversity
I’m Wayne Lax from, originally, Detroit, Michigan. We moved to Wyoming in 1999 and have been here ever since. We had no knowledge or background on split estates and mineral rights. So, when we bought our house in 2000, we bought a five-acre place near to town, and we’re happy as hell. We love it…
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Private Land, Public Minerals: The Problem with Split Estates
Karen: “I’m Karen Turner. I’ve been married to LJ for almost…46 years? 47? Anyway, a long time. I came out here teaching school in 1967, and we’ve been raising cows and sheep ever since.” LJ: “I’m LJ Turner. I was born here, and raised here, and I’ve lived all my life here. This ranch was…