Risky Business in the West

Dee Hoffmeister, a 10-year resident of Silt, Colorado, returned home one day in 2005 to find a cloud of gas hovering near her house, which sits just 800 feet from an oil well. She passed out a few minutes later. Since then, Hoffmeister has suffered nausea, skin inflammation, and chronic fatigue. Her story is becoming more common in western towns where the oil and gas industry is booming. Wells are drilled next to schools, including one elementary school in Aztec, New Mexico, where drilling goes on 150 feet from the playground. Congress has granted exemptions from laws that would protect the environment from contaminants such as arsenic, mercury, acetone, and radium. To expose the loopholes that allow the industry to put human health at risk, NRDC published a report in October 2007 in cooperation with Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action. To read the report, including Hoffmeister’s story and those of others like her, go to www.nrdc.org/land/use/down/contents.asp.