Motivations

   After graduating from the University of Wyoming, I entered the U.S. Air Force and was away from my
 home state for the next 21 years.  However, that period of time was useful because it acquainted me
 with the characteristics of the night skies of places like Udorn, Thailand, Boston, San Francisco,
 Topeka, and Albuquerque.  Upon retirement from the Air Force, circumstances dictated that I return
 to Wyoming, which I did in 1991 and built a home two years later on a 10-acre piece of land in Daniel,
 21 miles north of Pinedale.

   My first actions included establishing a telescope observatory and reacquainting myself with the
 clear skies of home.  I renewed my acquaintance with the clear night sky and proceeded to become
 familiar with the views offered of galaxies and nebulae because of that clear sky.  One favorite galaxy
 in particular became the "Sombrero Galaxy," which unknowingly would become my "standard candle" of
 reference for the loss of sky clarity that was to come.

   The Light Dims
   In about year 2002, I began to realize that the Sombrero had lost something.  It took a while to
 discover what was missing but I realized that it was the appearance of the core of the galaxy and the
 width of the visible disk.  In 1993, the core presented the image of a sharply defined blue spark and
 the diameter filled a significant portion of the field of view in the eyepiece.  However, by 2002, that
 blue spark was gone and the visible width of the disk had reduced by about half.  Also, the night sky
 had taken on a faint white background glow compared to the deep blackness that had been common. 
 I realized that these changes were taking place in curious parallel timing with the significant upturn in
 development activity taking place in the Jonah gas field so I set about looking for other indicators that
 might support this suspicion.

  Fortuitously, I had set up a weather monitoring station on my property and added a solar ultraviolet
 (UV) sensor to the array in 1999.  I added this new sensor because in that period, the press had been
 talking a great deal about the decline in the earth's protective ozone layer in both hemispheres.  I was
 curious to see if I could detect any increases in UV radiation from the sun which would signal a
 weakening of the ozone layer overhead.  Every day I noted the high UV index reading and recorded it. 
 In 2002, I graphed the readings, expecting to see an increase in UV levels but was surprised to find
 the opposite result.  I continued to record and graph the readings through 2003 until the sensor
 failed.  The results show a curious downward trend that is seemingly more prevalent in the mid to late
 summer season.
    
                     
                            UV trends between 1999 and 2003 in Daniel.

   After conducting much research into the behavior of light at various wavelengths, I began to
 suspect that emissions from the gas fields and dust being lofted by the truck traffic in those fields
 could be the explanation.  It seemed quite possible that those new additions to the local air mass was
 actually blocking the UV and diminishing its intensity at the earth's surface.  Over the last few years,
 this hypothesis has gained some additional supportive evidence in the form of an increasing glow
 above the night horizon in the direction of the Jonah and Anticline gas fields.  This glow is definitely
 the result of particulate matter in the sky reflecting the very bright light radiating upward and outward
 from the huge battery of mercury vapor lights that surround each drill rig....of which there are scores
 in constant operation now.

   Action Stations
   I decided in 2003 that I had to do something to alert the citizens and regulators about the growing
 impacts that were resulting from the rapid increase in drilling.  Having been in the employ of the
 government, I knew its penchant for dismissing public comment so I concluded (naively it would turn
 out) that I might gain credibility by "going" scientific." I determined that one person could not address
 all of the impacts, i.e., to the surface, to water, to air, and to wildlife, so I opted to take on the issue
 of air quality.  I chose this because of my background in optics and atmospheric influences on light I
 acquired in the Air Force, and because there are federal laws on the books designed to protect the
 air.

   Thus, I opted to invest what turned out to be approximately $5000 of my personal funds in the
 purchase of a state-of-the-art, Ocean Optics brand, miniature optical spectrometer with which I set
 out to detect emission gases resulting from the presence of the energy industry in Sublette County. 
 The resulting adventure would lead me to an original discovery associated with the process of well
 completion flaring and a technical paper describing the findings.

   (mis-)Trust but Verify
   Over the course of four years on involvement in this battle, I have above all, become adamantly
 opposed to  BLM's insistence upon pushing its assertions of minimal air quality impact on the basis
 of impact modeling.  As  will be seen in other pages of this web site, modeled predictions have
 consistently failed.  The most blatant  example is the prediction of NOx emissions by Anticline develop-
 ment which have been found to be five times  higher than was predicted by modeling.  This is in part
 due, I believe, to emission inventories being reported by operators to state regulators that are derived
 from calculations rooted in such parameters as volume of diesel fuel consumed by drill rig engines.  This
 practice is defended on the grounds that this is a methodology mandated by EPA using EPA developed 
 equations.  Also, regulators were glacially slow to get feet on the ground with a comprehensive emissions
 monitoring network, thus depriving the process of real data.  There are at  least two arguments against
 the mandated EPA methodology.
 
     First, EPA regulatory guidance is a "one size fits all" product that can be effectively argued as failing
 in our region of high altitude and unique meteorological conditions.  Thus, those regulations must be
 "fine tuned" to address our conditions and the Federal Clean Air Act contains a fundamental provision
 allowing Wyoming to do so:

      "...[a] state...[may] establish pollution control requirements...[more] stringent than federal
       requirements."

   Second, there is no substitute for empirical measurements.  There appears to be no validation of the
 equations for our altitude; for instance, has the equation been adjusted for drill rig engine de-rated
 performance at 7200 ft altitude?  It must become mandatory for drill rig engines exhausts to be instru-
 mented for continuous emissions measurement in the same manner as emissions testing of automobiles.
 Absent real quantitative data, modeling will continue to be just an exercise in shadow boxing.