Somewhat as a result of a double irony, however, the State regulators, reacting to a particularly well publicized incident, instituted a rule on flaring which took effect on July 1, 2005.  The incident produced a dramatic black mushroom cloud on the edge of Pinedale in February of 2004 which filled 1200 square miles within the Upper Green River area with dense particulate haze.   A spokesman for the company in question when pressed for explanations by the local press simply commented that it had done nothing illegal and had no plans to change its procedures.  The first irony here is that the event was not a flaring but was instead an "upset" situation necessitating immediate dump to the atmosphere for safety reasons.  The second irony is that the flaring rule had nothing to do with the spectroscopic evidence indicating the injection of potentially harmful metals into the local air mass.  No one can say to this day if exposure to these metals in trace amounts over long periods pose a hazard to humans and wildlife.
   To ascertain if the new rule was proving effective, I have kept a record of flaring events on the Anticline and part of the Jonah.  This has been made possible through the use of a small telescope fitted with a third generation night vision eyepiece which I constructed for this purpose.  This device enables me to observe flares as far as 50 miles beyond my southern horizon which takes in a portion of the Jonah and all of the Anticline.  The resulting statistics are presented in the table below.  When I queried the State regulatory agency regarding its monitoring  of flare completions I was disturbed to learn that enforcement of the rule is left up to industry.  The reason given was that the regulators "...were not in a position to judge from Cheyenne when flaring is necessary for safety reasons or availability of infrastructure."  These are the allowed justifications for flare completion.  Otherwise, "green completion" by capture techniques is mandated.  In fairness, it must be stated that most of the operators now strive to employ green completion.  However, there still are two operators who demonstrate little interest in complying.

   

 Run the Numbers
 The flare summary chart (Page 2) reveals that the number of flares per month has in fact declined very little compared to the period prior to the new rule.  There are no numbers given prior to the two months preceding the rule date because I did not foresee a need to keep records.  However, I did observe the frequency and made a mental note so I can state with confidence that flaring has not reduced by much.  It should be noted that these observations exclude the period of bright moon because its light conceals the light from flaring. But a clarification is in order here.  The State regulators challenge my conclusion on the grounds that because the number of completions has gone up dramatically, the fact that flare completions remains at the same level does in fact represent a net reduction.  My response is that given the content of the plumes demonstrated by my spectroscopy, and given the haze creating impacts that flaring can produce, a relative reduction is not good enough.  An absolute elimination of flaring must be the goal....except where safety issues dominate.

 The Eyes Have it
  Perhaps the most visible effect that results from flaring IS the reduction in visibility.  Several examples of well documented reduction in visibility on the morning after a flare completion can be viewed by clicking on the links below.  A common occurrence is the formation of a layer of smoke and particulate hugging the foothills of the Wind River Range.  At other times, a pervasive light haze is visible across the region between the gas fields and the mountains.  At still other times, ribbons of smoke can be seen drifting at 500 to 1000 feet above the prairie.  An interesting footnote needs to be added here: flaring is almost always performed at night.
                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                               Perry Walker