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L.J. Turner's family has been ranching in northeast Wyoming for generations. That way of life is changing now that Turner's neighbors include the world's largest open surface coal mines.
credit:
Katie Campbell
L.J. Turner's family has been ranching in northeast Wyoming for generations. That way of life is changing now that Turner's neighbors include the world's largest open surface coal mines.
credit:
Katie Campbell
One of the open surface coal mines near L.J. Turner's ranch. Mines like this operate on public land where Turner once grazed his cattle.
credit:
Katie Campbell
Dump trucks at the Black Thunder Mine in Wyoming are large enough to carry houses. Each tire can cost up to $80,000.
credit:
Katie Campbell
Coal trains being loaded at the Black Thunder Mine in the Powder River Basin.
credit:
Katie Campbell
Editor’s Note: Should coal from Wyoming and Montana be transported through the Pacific Northwest and shipped to Asia? In our multimedia project, “Voices of Coal,” we bring you nine diverse perspectives from people across the region with a stake in that debate. Today’s installment: The Coal Country rancher.
L.J. Turner’s family started ranching more than a century ago in northeastern Wyoming. He remembers as a boy cutting ice from the creek outside the ranch for use during the summer.
Now the creek runs dry a lot of the time. Turner says the aquifers have been depleted by the nearby coal mines. Not long ago he had to dig a well more than 1,000 feet to reach the water.
Turner has also lost access to 6,000 acres of public land where he used to graze his cows. That’s where the mines are today.
Many of his neighbors don’t believe that humans are contributing to global climate change. It’s pretty clear to him that things are changing, and that burning coal is a reason.
Sources: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Land Quality Division, United States Census Bureau, State of Wyoming Department of Revenue.
Click on any image below to visit Voices of Coal.
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EarthFix is a public media project of Oregon Public Broadcasting and Boise State Public Radio, Idaho Public Television, KCTS 9 Seattle, KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, Northwest Public Radio and Television, Southern Oregon Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
