Wyoming Community Organizes to Address Ozone Impacts

May 29, 2011

 
PINEDALE — Sublette County residents who say they suffered health problems from ground-level ozone pollution this winter are demanding more action be taken to combat the problem.

Isabel Rucker, a Pinedale businesswoman, facilitated a brainstorming session for about two dozen area residents earlier this week. The goal was to “get together and demand better from industry and our government.”

“We want clean air,” Rucker said, adding that such a position is not meant to be anti-energy development. Rucker said the group believes there should be a better balance between development and protecting human health.

Environmental activist Linda Baker said those who participated in her group believed state agencies, the Sublette County Commission and, to a certain extent, the University of Wyoming “are somewhat compromised” by royalties received from industrial development and thus “are reluctant to get involved” in a comprehensive health impact assessment.

Rucker closed the meeting by saying that providing for better health for county residents is in the best interest of industry as well, adding, “If we get sick, our work stops.”

 

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