Air pollution off the charts in rural Wyoming

Wyoming, famous for its crisp mountain air and breathtaking, far-as-the-eye-can-see vistas, is looking a lot like smoggy Los Angeles these days because of a boom in natural gas drilling.

Folks who live 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 ozone levels that have exceeded what people in L.A. and other major cities wheeze through on their worst pollution days.

"It is scary to me personally. I never would have guessed in a million years you would have that kind of danger here," Debbee Miller, a manager at a Pinedale snowmobile dealership, said Monday.

Full Story: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_8910eb78-49ae-11e0-bbc9-001cc4c03286.html

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In Pinedale, Wyo., Residents Adjust to Air Pollution

“I got the flu last week,” Dr. Quirk said. “And when I was out feeding my horses, throwing hay, I was doubled over coughing” and wondering, “do I feel this miserable because of just the flu?”

Kirk Johnson

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/us/10smog.html?hpw