The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is issuing stricter air quality rules for the Upper Green River Basin.
The area does not meet federal air quality standards because emissions from oil and gas production have caused ozone to form. The new rules impose stricter emissions controls on new facilities, or facilities that are being modified.
The D-E-Q’s Steve Dietrich says these requirements were already in place within the boundaries of the Jonah and Pinedale Anticline gas fields … but now they’ll extend to the entire Upper Green River Basin.
“I can’t give you a firm number of how many facilities that would affect, because we don’t know when a facility is going to modify their existing facility or a new facility is going to go online.”
But Dietrich says he thinks the new rules will be a big step in helping the area solve the ozone problem.
The new rules go into effect November 1st.