Water contamination in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem

My name is Dick Bilodeau. I live with my wife, Deb Thomas, on Line Creek in Park County, Wyoming. Our home is on the east side of the Beartooth Mountains on the Montana/ Wyoming border. We have owned our property and lived on Line Creek for 14 years. Our son, Quinn, was six years old when we moved here. I am a member of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, and have been since 2000. I helped organize the PRBRC affiliate group, Clark Resource Council.

I was born and grew up in Anaconda, Montana, and have spent much of my life living along the Beartooth Front. The Beartooth Front is known for its abundant wildlife, hunting, and trout streams. It is a wild place, with a small population. We are on the east side of the Greater Yellowstone Park ecosystem, and some of the wildest country in the ecosystem.

It's an important part of our agricultural and recreational economies

Line Creek is one of the main tributaries of the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone River. It is part of the headwaters of the Yellowstone River. Line Creek is a Wyoming class 2AB waterway; which means it is drinking water and supports cold water fish (trout). Line Creek plays an important part in sustaining the agricultural and the recreational economy of the area.

The water quality of Line Creek, however, is deteriorating quickly as a result of the oil and gas exploration and production that is happening right around it. I have observed drilling rigs, road construction, and pipelines associated with oil and gas exploration and production in numerous places within approximately 150 feet from Line Creek. A series of illegally buried unlined waste pits, loss of circulation during drilling, and a gas well blowout have resulted in serious groundwater contamination. The shallow and deep aquifers in the drainage are now contaminated. Two private water wells are contaminated, with 10 times safe drinking water standards for benzene in one of them. In addition to groundwater contamination, the contamination that enters Line Creek from nearby oil and gas activities threatens the water rights that I and my family have to use water from Line Creek for irrigation.

We have to rein in dirty energy

More oil and gas activity is planned for the area. However, the state of Wyoming has inadequate laws, inadequate expertise, no political will to enforce the laws they do have, and no plan to protect our community. The oil and gas industry continues to use chemicals in their drilling and fracking fluids that have very serious health impacts and are exempt from our nation’s hazardous waste law when used during oil and gas exploration and development.

Unless controls are required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up and protect the Line Creek drainage, and we reform oil and gas industry practices, the situation in the watershed will only get worse. This will increase the harm my family and I are already experiencing caused by oil and gas activities, and I worry that we will leave nothing but a toxic legacy for our children.

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