Some Laramie County residents recently submitted a letter to the state, requesting that an air quality monitor be moved to better reflect the air they are breathing in.
One can see hundreds of homes all on a couple acres of prairie, and mixed in with these houses is oil and gas development. Driving through one passes a home and then a couple pump jacks, and then past another home one sees a drilling rig. Oil and gas activity significantly picked up in Laramie County about 10 years ago, and in the years since, it has moved into residential areas. The Cheyenne Area Landowners Coalition advocates for residents that are concerned about this development.
The state will be tracking how oil and gas development is affecting air quality in Laramie County over the next year, but some residents question how accurate the data will be.The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (WDEQ) recently moved one of its mobile air quality testing units to Laramie County. There are three units that move across the state periodically to test air.