Wyoming Black Hills still suffering water well contamination

Yep, water is pork.

Ogden Driskill is an obese earth hater Wyoming legislator running cattle near Devils Tower National Monument in the Belle Fourche River watershed.

At his request the Crook County Commission has been asking the City of Gillette in neighboring Campbell County to allow access to the Madison water pipeline for landowners whose wells have been depleted or compromised by over a century of livestock grazing, coal mining and other extractive industries. Some 55 area wells are producing water that is not fit for human consumption under US Environmental Protection Agency standards.

“We’ve got a number of wells that went dry, we’ve got acid in wells – there’s a problem,” said Driskill. He noted that the wells did not dry up slowly, but that the problem appeared virtually overnight. “The City of Gillette is unwilling, partially for liability reasons,” he said. “These guys are hauling water for cows and hauling water for houses. That’s not right.” Commissioner Kelly Dennis, whose own land sits near the affected area, commented he has heard talk that another well may have run dry near Thorn Divide, several miles from where the problem was initially identified. [Sundance Times]

Thorn Divide is visible as an open green rise in front of Mahto Tipila in the background of the above image.

After meeting with resistance, he tacked an amendment on the omnibus water bill that would have forced Gillette to allow up to 200 new taps. Gillette turned down the funding, citing concerns over the repercussions of the amendment’s wording. Since that time, says Driskill, things have turned ugly – but he won’t let that deter him. [Sundance Times]

Like wiping your ass with a hula hoop: it's endless.

Oneok wants to install a second natural gas liquids pipeline through Crook County nearly parallel to the 900-mile Bakken line placed in 2012 traversing Thorn Divide near Carlile.

In January of 2016, the US Forest Service suspended the Draft Environmental Impact Study for a Wyoming Black Hills mountaintop-removal mine that would take rare earth minerals in the Belle Fourche watershed.

At least 23 prehistoric sites near Devils Tower National Monument, some of which are archaeological treasures eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, are also at risk to an 8000-acre expansion of Australia’s largest US aquifer uranium mining operation.

$20 bucks says the black bears, wolves, and moose sighted in the Black Hills are migrating from the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming down the Tongue River across the Powder to the Pumpkin Buttes where the Cheyenne and Belle Fourche Rivers begin then go up Beaver Creek near Newcastle into upper Castle Creek and down Rapid Creek to the Black Fox/Rochford area.