SHERIDAN, Wyo. — When Jack Cooper looks out the window of his saddle shop in rural Sheridan County, he sees the jagged Bighorn Mountains to the west and a tree-lined creek winding its way through a wide valley to the east.

Only the dust, which hangs in the air like ground fog among the trees and rolling hills, gets in the way of the scenic view.

"We don't dare leave a window open in the daytime," Cooper said.

Cooper lives along a gravel road that has become a major artery for trucks and workers in one of the many coal-bed methane gas fields in northeast Wyoming. The traffic kicks up clouds of dust that have drawn complaints from residents who say it's not only unsightly, but potentially dangerous to asthma sufferers and even livestock.

While oil and gas development creates other problems -- housing shortages, noise, water pollution and increased crime -- dust is just about universal in the booming methane fields of Wyoming and other states rich in natural gas.

"Anywhere there's a producing oil and gas well, it's an issue," said Gwen Lachelt, director of the Durango, Colo.-based Oil and Gas Accountability Project, reeling off problem areas in parts of Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico, West Virginia, Wyoming and Canada.

Most rural county roads were designed to handle the occasional cattle and grain trucks, but they quickly break down under the weight of hundreds of heavy trucks hauling drilling rigs, water, and other equipment and materials, said Bj Kristiansen, coordinator of the Wyoming Coalbed Methane Coordination Coalition.

"We have a lot of road breakdown, and that produces dust," Kristiansen said.

A resurgence in oil production and a vibrant coal mining industry add still more truck traffic to rural roads in Wyoming, he said.

Cooper said traffic passing outside his home has increased from perhaps 75 to 100 vehicles a day just five years ago to 800 a day last year.

About five years ago, Campbell County in northeast Wyoming came close to violating federal air standards because of dust and other pollutants from coal-bed methane and coal operations. Dan Olson, administrator of the state's Air Quality Division, said those problems are under control now, and the division is installing additional air monitors around the state to make sure the dust problem doesn't get out of hand.

But people living near the dusty roads say it's already a huge issue.

Bernadette Barlow, who has ranched in western Campbell County for 42 years, said the dust aggravated her allergies, forcing her to wear a surgical mask.

"I take a walk every day," the 65-year-old Barlow said. "And when I take a walk and I see dust in the air I just have to put on my dust mask."

Dr. Kamlesh Shah, an allergy and asthma specialist in nearby Gillette, said dust aggravates the conditions of allergy and asthma sufferers -- even those miles away from where the dust originates.

"When you have dust and wind together, it covers a lot of area; people not near the activity can get into trouble," Shah said.

The dust has affected livestock, too.

Campbell County rancher Don Spellman said he had to vaccinate 70 to 80 calves for dust pneumonia -- a condition that causes running noses, coughing and wheezing in the animals -- a few years ago.

"I never had to doctor like I had here two or three years ago," Spellman said, adding that he's fared better the last couple years because the heaviest truck traffic moved elsewhere and more rain and snow kept the dust down.

Cooper and others have complained to their county commissioners, who say they do not have the money to fully douse the dust, repair the roads and deal with other problems, such as increased crime, that result from the energy boom.

Although methane development does enrich counties, most of the money doesn't start flowing to county government until after the wells have been producing at least six months.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal has proposed that the state give $100 million back to the eight Wyoming counties most affected by natural gas development to deal with dust and other issues.

The quickest and cheapest solution is to apply magnesium chloride, which adheres to the road surface and prevents dust particles from escaping.

Bruce Yates, the Sheridan County engineer, said the county has applied magnesium chloride to about 75 miles of roads so far at a cost of about $4,000 per mile. But magnesium chloride wears off in a couple of years and is corrosive to metal on cars.

And the dust, like the development itself, is transitory. Once the wells are drilled in one area, the heavy truck traffic moves on to a new place.

Yates said his department tries to stay ahead of the problem, but development can happen so quickly that it's difficult to keep up.

"They're kind of a moving target," he said, "and that's difficult to plan around."

Source: Associated Press