SHERIDAN, Wyo. - When Jack Cooper looks out the window of his saddle shop in rural Sheridan County, he sees the jagged Bighorn Mountains to the west and a tree-lined creek winding its way through a wide valley to the east.
Only the dust, which hangs in the air like ground fog among the trees and rolling hills, gets in the way of the scenic view.
"We don't dare leave a window open in the daytime," Cooper said.
Cooper lives along a gravel road that has become a major artery for trucks and workers in one of the many coal-bed methane gas fields in northeast Wyoming. The traffic kicks up clouds of dust that have drawn complaints from residents who say it's not only unsightly, but potentially dangerous to asthma sufferers and even livestock.
While oil and gas development creates other problems — housing shortages, noise, water pollution and increased crime — dust is just about universal in the booming methane fields of Wyoming and other states rich in natural gas...
...While oil and gas development creates other problems — housing shortages, noise, water pollution and increased crime — dust is just about universal in the booming methane fields of Wyoming and other states rich in natural gas.
"Anywhere there's a producing oil and gas well, it's an issue," said Gwen Lachelt, director of the Durango, Colo.-based Oil and Gas Accountability Project, reeling off problem areas in parts of Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico, West Virginia, Wyoming and Canada.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051212/ap_on_re_us/methane_field_dustAh, "clean" natural gas...