New EPA Ozone Rules May Zap Sublette County Drilling Plans
Friday, March 14, 2008
Pinedale, WY – Big cities across the country aren't the only places wondering how they'll meet the new ozone health safety rules issued this week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Small-town Wyoming is wondering the same. Ozone air advisories have been issued several times this winter-–including one this week-–for the Upper Green River Basin, and they're based on the current less-stringent standard.
The EPA's new rules will lower significantly the "safe levels" of ozone allowed. The state Department of Environmental Quality has documented that the pollution in the basin comes from natural gas drilling.
Air quality expert Bruce Pendery with the Wyoming Outdoor Council says something will have to change when thousands of new wells are added in Sublette County.
"If you have all the drilling and production going on with 4,400 additional wells, it's virtually impossible to see how we're going to do better."
The EPA issued tougher rules because high levels of ozone can cause respiratory problems, increasing the risks of asthma and even death. The new standards go into effect in the year 2010.
Some companies say ozone-measuring stations aren't reflecting true values or risks because some of the highest levels measured aren't close to places where people work and live.
Pendery hopes the new rules aren't ignored. As a case in point, he says the federal Bureau of Land Management calculated that the plan to add thousands of new wells on the Pinedale Anticline would violate current ozone standards and the plan still was okayed.
"I think it's increasingly at odds with where the people of Wyoming are headed to demand that we go along with this. Let's get a handle on this. Let's deal with this."
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