Miles City in the news
Feb 26th, 2007 by Jesse Moore
A friend of mine from Washington actually sent me this story when he heard it on the local news - his ears perking when he thought he heard the town of Miles City on the Seattle newscast.
Montana Farmers Blaming Irrigation Problems on Methane Drilling
MILES CITY, Mont. (AP) - When the soil in Roger Muggli’s fields turned bad last year, damaging more than 300 acres of alfalfa, the third-generation farmer quickly named a culprit: coal-bed methane drilling along the nearby Tongue River.Muggli’s finger-pointing has made him few friends in a region where economic development is desperately needed and future coal-bed methane production could mean hundreds of new jobs. His claims are denied by industry representatives and some federal scientists, who say a link between coal-bed methane and Muggli’s bad soil cannot be proven.But state officials and an independent researcher warn that Muggli’s problems might be a harbinger of things to come, as the industry prepares to dramatically ramp up operations across 20 million acres in southeastern Montana. REST OF STORY
Whenever we hear about ties to Montana in the news Kami and I tend to get a little nervous - which is easy to understand when these stories range from hiding the Unabomber to arming a murderer. While this story is spared of any murderous connection, it’s no less disturbing. I’ll let those that might know more about the topic speak intelligently about it (Dad?), but I can only hope that those responsible for protecting my home state look back at the instances where commercial interests were placed above a sense of stewardship to the land so many depend on for their living. Anyone else think of Butte, MT while reading the story above?
Butte crossed my mind the minute I started reading this. For the uninitiated, Butte is basically an inverted mountain in the middle of a mountain range. It’s the only city on earth proud enough to boast the sign, “Mile High, Mile Deep”. The Berkley Pit, the main portion of the strip mine that supplied much of the US copper supply throughout the 1800’s and 1900’s, has filled with water that is heavily laced with heavy metals and arsenic. The water is so toxic that there are full time employees of the Pit whose sole purpose is to shoot sound shells at passing geese to keep them from landing in the water (one flock did manage to land and they all died within a few hours). Butte, the largest Superfund site in the US, is the crowning example of what unchecked big industry and commercial intrests can mean to an environment. Don’t believe me? Check out Butte via Google Earth and see for yourself.
I remember reading recently that the feds or the state sent some soil scientist in and he determined that Roger’s problems were not caused by CBM. If you’ve never seen a CBM field imagine a prairie dog town with holes about 1000 times larger than a prairie dog hole. Its ghastly ugly. The local BLM office is in a lot of turmoil because of CBM. Ten years ago the policies of the BLM were so left-wing you didn’t dare kick a dirt clod or stare too long at a grasshopper. Now the government has pushed them so far to the right that they are fast-tracking CBM development with no thoughts of the consequences.
wish I could but you know where I work, I’ll have to give you a call….