High Country News

Let the EPA finish its work in Pavillion, Wyoming

The gas industry and its political partners are going to great lengths to try to derail and discredit an EPA report that blames Pavillion, Wyoming’s polluted water on hydraulic fracking.

by John Fenton, Jan 24, 2012
A citizen activist forces New Mexico's dairies to clean up their act

When a giant dairy proposed building near Jerry Nivens' beloved New Mexico home, the chain-smoking Texas hermit became an activist who organized other locals to fight the industry.

by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Dec 05, 2011
A Texas town welcomes dairies; a New Mexico activist fights them

Jana Hughes, of Hobbs, N.M., does not find dairies to be good neighbors. Janet Claborn, of Muleshoe, Texas, has recruited 14 dairies to her town and sees them as an economic development blessing.

by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Nov 27, 2011
Montanans close to Yellowstone better wake up

The oil and gas industry -- and its many environmental side effects -- are coming to Montana's Yellowstone country.

by Andrea Peacock, Sep 03, 2010
Water-quality standards unfairly burden rural communities

The plight of a small water and sewer association in rural Mora, N.M -- caught in a tangle of federal and state clean water rules it can’t afford to meet -- echoes experienced by other rural communities around the West.

by Judith Lewis Mernit, Dec 20, 2011
Locals flush proposed kitty litter mine

A recent court ruling denying a proposed cat-litter mine in Nevada’s Washoe County could give local communities more control over mining projects on federal land.

by Hilary Watts, Feb 07, 2005
Contaminated water can't stop Californiasprawl

Perchlorate, a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel, has been found in drinking water wells, but that won’t stop the development of West Creek, a planned community northeast of Los Angeles

by Patrick Farrell, Oct 03, 2005
Frack 2, Scene 1

New York City fights drilling in its watershed, and even some energy executives say the industry needs to be more transparent about the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

by Sarah Gilman, Nov 17, 2009
Coping with two-headed fish and other effects of selenium

Researchers try to determine if unhealthy amounts of selenium are entering Western soil and water due to energy development.

by Danielle Venton, May 29, 2012
Retooling a Leviathan

The nation’s nuclear infrastructure is aging, and in need of very expensive – and very complicated – retooling just to survive

by Judith Lewis, Sep 04, 2006