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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Cartoon: July 9, 2021 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Daily Cartoon: July 9, 2021

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Public Safety

UPDATE 11:50 a.m.: This story has been updated to include more information from the Wyoming Highway Patrol about those injured in the crash.

A commercial tanker truck driver failing to stop for traffic waiting to enter a one-lane construction zone west of Casper on Friday afternoon 

, killing two people and injuring eight others, the Wyoming Highway Patrol reports in a fatal crash summary of the incident released Wednesday.

The crash happened at 1:50 p.m. Friday on U.S. Highway 20/26 near mile marker 58.3, about 45 miles northwest of Casper wit the WHP having identified driver inattention as a possible contributing factor in the crash.

[{"type":"text","text":"As of Wednesday, no criminal charges had been announced."}]

Responding to Cowboy State Daily requests for information about whether any arrests have been made in relation to the crash and if anyone has been criminally charged, the WHP said that the investigation into the crash is active and information about potential criminal charges won’t be released until that’s been completed.

The fatal crash summary says that the westbound 2024 Western Star tanker truck failed to stop at mile marker 58.3 for queued traffic waiting to enter the construction zone before striking a Chevrolet Silverado, Toyota Highlander, Toyota 4Runner, Subaru Outback, Chevrolet Camaro, Ram 1500 and Chevrolet Impala.

[{"type":"text","text":"The crash involved eight vehicles and 17 people."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Two people died, eight were injured and seven escaped injury."}]

A 3-year-old and an adult male in the Highlander were both transported to Banner Wyoming Medical Center via helicopter. Also, a 1-year-old and adult female in the same vehicle were taken to the hospital by ground ambulance, the WHP reports, adding they were treated and released.

Two others were also taken by ambulance to Casper, where they were treated and released.

The driver of the 4Runner and a passenger, an adult female and male, were also hospitalized at Banner Wyoming Medical Center in Casper. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Colorado Couple Identified"}]

The Natrona County Coroner's Office identified the two people killed as James Faris Cox, 74, and Susan Horn Cox, 69, of Golden, Colorado.

[{"type":"text","text":"The couple was traveling to Ennis, Montana, according to a family member."}]

Both were wearing seat belts, according to the Highway Patrol's crash summary.

The Highway Patrol said the weather was clear; the roadway was dry, and neither a rollover nor collision with a fixed object contributed to the crash.

[{"type":"text","text":"The investigation remains ongoing."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Aftermath"}]

Several motorists interviewed by Cowboy State Daily said they at first believed traffic had stopped because of the construction project ahead.

Erin Mills said she was driving toward Riverton after dropping her dogs off in Casper when traffic came to a standstill.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I thought I was waiting on the pilot car,\" she said."}]

Like many others, Mills had already driven through the work zone earlier and expected another routine delay.

Instead, as traffic ahead slowly began turning around, she caught her first glimpse of the aftermath.

"When that camper moved, that's when I could see," she said. "I saw what looked like a shredded vehicle on the left-hand side of the road."

"I didn't physically see it happen," she continued. "I was behind it and saw the aftermath."

From where she was, Mills said she saw a jackknifed fuel tanker and damaged vehicles scattered across the highway.

"It looked like a tanker just plowed through these vehicles," she said, emphasizing she was describing what the aftermath looked like, not what she actually saw happen.

The WHP’s crash summary confirms the commercial tanker struck the line of stopped traffic after failing to stop.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Something Wrong'"}]

Another witness, Krista Nethercott, also believed traffic had stopped because of construction.

"There were these pylons on the right-hand side that kind of tell you there's construction," she said. "But there wasn't anything alerting you to slow down. There wasn't a flagger."

After several minutes, she stepped out of her vehicle because, she said, "I just felt like there was something wrong."

When she walked forward, she realized the line of stopped vehicles was the result of a catastrophic crash.

"That's when I could see there were cars on both sides of the road," she said.

A funeral director, Nethercott immediately ran toward the wreckage to make sure someone had called 911 and to offer assistance.

[{"type":"text","text":"Working alongside another bystander, she checked on James and Susan Cox."}]

"The gentleman was immediately deceased," she said. "The lady probably lived a couple minutes."

[{"type":"text","text":"She recalled that both appeared to have been wearing their seat belts."}]

Their pickup was so badly crushed, she said, that rescuers ultimately needed specialized equipment to remove the couple.

"If the woman had lived longer, I don't think this gentleman and I could have ever taken her out of the vehicle," she said. "That's how crushed it was."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Before Help Arrived"}]

Because the crash happened in a remote stretch of western Natrona County, Nethercott estimated it took about 30 minutes before ambulances and firefighters reached the scene.

"It seemed like it was a long time to see paramedics," she said. "But considering you're out in the middle of nowhere, I don't think they could have gotten there any quicker."

Long before emergency crews arrived, however, strangers had already 

 Nethercott estimated roughly 10 motorists got out of their vehicles to help.

Some searched for fire extinguishers. Others comforted injured victims. One man who identified himself as working at a pediatric clinic checked on a young child who remained safely secured in a five-point car seat while the child's injured father tried to comfort him.

"There were people left and right getting out of their vehicles and trying to find anything that could be used," Nethercott said. "Whether it's water, an emergency medical kit or a fire extinguisher."

[{"type":"text","text":"The Natrona County Fire District later praised those bystanders."}]

"Crews would like to send a heartfelt thank you to all the bystanders who assisted victims immediately after the crash, while waiting for help to arrive, as well as while responders were on-scene, offering shelter during the passing of a thunder cell, emotional support and minor patient care," the agency said in a statement.

"The true spirit of the 'Wyoming Way' was in full force this day,” the statement adds.

Although there was little anyone could do medically for Susan Cox, Nethercott said they made sure she wasn't alone. 

"We told her help was coming,” she said. "We don't know what happens when people are unconscious, but we wanted her to know somebody was there."

Only then did Nethercott turn her attention to survivors who still could be saved.

Double fatal highway sign 7 1 26

<title>Highway Patrol: Tanker Truck Plowed Into Vehicles In Last Week’s Double Fatal Crash | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The cause of last week’s double fatal crash in remote Natrona County was due to a commercial tanker truck driver who failed to stop for traffic in a construction zone, the Wyoming Highway Patrol said Wednesday. The investigation is active.

Highway Patrol: Tanker Truck Plowed Into Vehicles In Last Week’s Double Fatal Crash

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

Government & Politics

Speculation is growing over whether a data center could be linked to a rare bacterium discovered in Cheyenne's reuse wastewater system earlier this year, as city officials continue to withhold the identity of the industrial user responsible for the discharge.

Four days after the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities publicly disclosed the contamination, which happened in February, officials have yet to identify either the company or the industry involved, saying legal and regulatory reviews are still underway.

"It would be likely that a newer industry would be responsible," said Jonathan Brant, a University of Wyoming associate professor of civil and architectural engineering who specializes in water treatment. "Data center discharges would be the first place I would look."

The Board of Public Utilities has fielded multiple public records requests as residents demand to know what industry is behind the hazardous discharge, who the offender is and why the public wasn’t notified as soon as the contaminant was discovered in February.

“Citizens deserve to know what industry contaminated the wastewater,” said Exie Brown Jr., a Republican vying for a House District 9 seat on the Wyoming House of Representatives.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Background"}]

Last week, the Board of Public Utilities reminded its customers via public notice that discharge of hazardous substances into the sanitary sewer system is prohibited.

The notice came four months after its lab staff detected an “unusual bacterium” during routine wastewater sampling in February.

The mystery bacterium was found to be cupriavidus gilardii, a naturally occurring organism commonly found in soil and groundwater environments, known for its high resistance to metals. It has been associated with industrial applications involving metal reduction processes, including some advanced manufacturing and industrial systems.

“It is new to us,” said Erin Lamb, BOPU’s administrative and public affairs coordinator. “We have a pretty robust lab and sampling protocol. It’s something that popped up and we thought it was odd, so we reached out to the public health lab.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The city’s reuse water system was taken offline as a precaution."}]

According to the public notice, BOPU staff have undertaken “significant remediation efforts,” draining and disinfecting the entire reuse water system and the city’s Prairie View retention pond to eliminate bacterial presence.

Reuse water irrigation services resumed Monday, after consultation with the Laramie County Public Health Department. By Tuesday, the retention pond was being refilled.

The contaminant affected the city’s reusable water system – water used strictly for irrigation, Lamb said.

Lamb said people are confusing the wastewater system with the drinking-water system, and she reiterated that the hazard affected the wastewater reuse system only.

“I think that’s been very confusing to people. It’s not our water system. It’s our reuse wastewater system," she said.

The source was eventually traced to an “industrial user within the system.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mystery Industrial User"}]

Lamb told Cowboy State Daily the BOPU’s holdout to publicly identify the industrial user behind the contaminant is to ensure all local, state and federal regulations are being followed.

“We have to make sure our legalities are covered,” she said. “It is something we are right in the middle of.”

She said the purpose of Friday’s notice was more about reminding the public that discharging hazardous materials into the wastewater system is prohibited and less about the biohazard that had been discovered.

Still, news of the hazard stoked frustration, fear and confusion.

Conversations have played out on social media, with some people assuming a data center is behind the contaminant. Others called for voting out all city council members and Mayor Patrick Collins for their strong pro-data center stance. Some, like Cheyenne resident Jeffrey Scott, say data centers don’t use chemicals for refining metals.

[{"type":"text","text":"“We’re definitely aware of the public interest,” Lamb said."}]

Her office has received multiple public-records requests from residents demanding to know who is behind the hazardous discharge.

[{"type":"text","text":"One such request is from Brown."}]

Brown told Cowboy State Daily he is seeking information about how the discharge happened, adding, “Transparency should be the default and not the exception. The City of Cheyenne and BOPU work for the people and not the other way around.”

In his own public statement, Brown said, “BOPU’s press release spends considerable time reminding everyday residents and small businesses what not to put down a drain, while deliberately keeping the identity of the actual responsible party hidden behind vague language about ‘an industrial user’.”

Lamb said her office is following all the proper regulatory procedures and is undergoing a legal review to determine what information it can release.

“I understand the frustration,” she said. “But to do it right, we have to follow those procedures.”

Lamb also would not identify the offending industry.

“I can’t confirm anything at this point in terms of the entity’s name or industry,” she said. “We ask for patience. We just want to make sure we do everything by the book." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Why So Long?"}]

Lamb told Cowboy State Daily that as soon as the contaminant was discovered, staff sent it to the state lab for testing.

Hazardous materials being discharged into the city sewer is not uncommon, she said, and it took a week to 10 days for the lab to confirm the contaminant was cupriavidus gilardii.

Lamb did not directly confirm with Cowboy State Daily why the public wasn’t notified about the contaminant until four months after it was discovered.

“This has been a process,” she said, adding that attention to local, state and federal regulations has been the focus of the probe.

According to the BOPU’s statement, research shows that while infections caused by cupriavidus gilardii are extremely rare the bacterium may pose health risks to immunocompromised individuals and the elderly through direct exposure.

According to the public notice, hazardous discharge violations can result in fines, penalties, liability for damages and potentially being disconnected from city water and sewer services.

The user behind this incident will face a series of fees, based on what it cost the city to remediate, Lamb said. She didn’t know an exact dollar amount.

“Violations can become extremely costly,” Lamb said. “We’re pretty firm on not putting that cost on our ratepayers.”

The user is also cut off from the city’s sewer system, their discharge permit terminated.

Lamb said that means the user will have to find another way to dispose of discharge, such as utilizing holding tanks or trucking waste to a facility that can treat and/or dispose of hazardous materials.

“It’s something that the Board of Public Utilities is not willing to risk happening again,” she said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Common\/Not Common"}]

The Board of Public Utilities’ wastewater reclamation facilities have encountered a variety of hazardous materials discharged into the sewer system over the past two decades. Hazardous materials include gasoline, petroleum products, grease and concrete.

“This is unfortunately not an anomaly,” Lamb said. “It isn’t a once-in-a-while kind of thing."

[{"type":"text","text":"Every utility system experiences this kind of thing frequently, she said."}]

“It’s an amazing wonder how some of these things get put down into the sewer system,” Lamb said.

However, the specific bacterium identified in this instance is an anomaly.

“It’s a naturally occurring thing,” Lamb said. “We’ve just never seen it before. We really had to do some research.”

Brant, the water-treatment specialist at the University of Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily the organism requires a metal-rich water system to thrive.

“Data centers, in general, can supply such environments for their heat-exchange systems,” he said. “Copper has historically been a widely used heat-exchange material, though other metals can be used as well, depending on the system design.”

As of Tuesday, a city water reclamation manager confirmed that water testing showed the bacterium was no longer present at either of the city’s two wastewater facilities — Crow Creek and Dry Creek.

Dry Creek Wastewater Plant IMG 6817 6 30 26

<title>Cheyenne Officials Haven't Said Who Polluted Its Reuse Water System | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Speculation is growing over whether a data center could be linked to pollution discovered in Cheyenne's reuse wastewater system earlier this year, as city officials haven't reported the identity of the industrial user responsible for the discharge.

Cheyenne Officials Haven't Said Who Polluted Its Reuse Water System

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Wildlife

A rancher near Choteau, Montana, caught video of six grizzlies strolling across his calving lot behind his barn late Monday, and said there were as many as seven bears on his property that night.

The next morning, rancher Neal Collins said agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hazed as many as 10 grizzlies out of patches of brush across the road from his place.

Collins said no people or livestock were attacked by the bears on his place, and FWP used non-lethal “cracker” shotgun shells to scare off the bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A ‘Herd’ Of Grizzlies"}]

Sparky Wallace, a friend of Collins who also lives near Choteau, somewhat humorously described the group of grizzlies as a “herd.”

A group of bears is actually called a "sleuth." Or sometimes, an older term, a “sloth” is used to describe a gathering of bears. 

He told Cowboy State Daily he and some of his neighbors have had encounters with multiple bears, as the number of grizzlies out on the prairie has steadily increased.  

Chad White, a bear management specialist with Montana FWP, said the bears on Collins’ property were probably a “couple of family groups that have been hanging out in the area.”

Meaning, they were likely two related adult females such as “a mother and daughter” and their cubs, White said.

The Choteau area has been busy with bear activity this spring and summer. The bears wander from the Rocky Mountain Front onto the prairie along the Teton River, which flows past Choteau. 

The bears might be feeding on green vegetation and other natural food sources, then taking shelter in brush patches.

“It may be that he (Collins) has the natural shelter for day bedding and they were traveling around the area,” White said. 

White said the FWP bear manager responding to Collins’ call told him as many as 10 grizzlies fled once the hazing stared.

FWP personnel fired cracker shells into the brush where the bears were holed up. Cracker shells fire a small explosive charge with a delayed fuse, designed to explode in the air and ward off predators such as bears and wolves.

“The six or seven bears in the family groups ran off in one direction, and two or three more ran off in another direction,” he said.

It’s not known where the other two or three bears might have come from, White added.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Alarm Barks"}]

Collins said he was first alerted to the bears’ presence Monday when one of his dogs started frantically barking at about 9:30 p.m.

“We’ve got this one dog that’s supposed to be a cow dog, but she’s really not,” he said. “She was just barking, barking, barking. She barks on occasion, but not like that.” 

He said he stepped outside to investigate and saw a “flash of a bear.”

So, he immediately went back into his house, shooing the dog inside with him.

A camera he has mounted on the backside of his barn caught video and photos of the bears.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘You Get Immune To It’"}]

Collins’ ranch is about 35 miles out on the prairie from the Rocky Mountain front.

Grizzlies are usually associated with mountain habitat. However, they were originally a Great Plains species, and were driven into the mountains as the West was settled.

Grizzlies have been growing in number and expanding their range in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in recent decades. In Montana, they’ve been pushing ever-farther onto the prairies.

Collins said his father was in his 70s before he ever saw a grizzly anywhere near Choteau. But the bears have become a common sight of late.

When asked if having the bears around worried him, Collins said, “I suppose, but you get immune to it.”

Even so, he’s not happy about the growing number of prairie grizzlies.

“There here, even though I don’t want them here,” he said.

In Wyoming, grizzlies attacking cattle is frequently listed as the leading cause of human-bear conflict.

Collins said he hasn’t lost any livestock to bears yet.

"Even so, they sure don’t help them (the cattle) even if they don’t kill them,” he said. "They move through the cattle herd and stir them up.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bird Hunting Gets Wild"}]

North-central Montana is a bird hunter’s paradise. And in decades past, grizzlies would have been the furthest things from bird hunters’ minds.

That’s not the case any longer. In 2023, 

 between bird and whitetail deer hunters in separate incidents.

Those occurred in the vicinity of the Freezeout Lake Wildlife Management Area. It’s between Choteau and Fairfield, Montana, about 40 miles west of Great Falls.

Collins said that several years ago, a bird hunter had to shoot and kill a charging grizzly across the road from his place.

“He ended up with a scratch on his arm, because the last shot was right at the end of the gun barrel,” he said.

Wallace, a horse trainer and saddle maker, said he’s run into multiple grizzlies while bird hunting.

“I hunt ducks a lot. And even on the little prairie potholes out here, you’ve got to walk in there loaded and ready for bears,” he said.

Herd of grizzlies 2 6 30 26

<title>Holy Cow! Montana Rancher Spots 'Herd' Of 7 Grizzlies On Property | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Montana rancher Neal Collins said a camera on his barn captured a "herd" of seven grizzlies on his property Monday night. The next morning, agents from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hazed 10 grizzlies out of brush across the road from his place.

Holy Cow! Montana Rancher Spots 'Herd' Of 7 Grizzlies On Property

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Politics

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Idaho and West Virginia’s bans on male participation in girls’ school sports.

Many Wyoming Republicans applauded the decision, including Gov. Mark Gordon, who had derided the state’s own cross-sex sports ban while allowing it to become law in 2023.

Idaho passed its Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in 2020. It was the nation’s first law preventing biological male students from competing on public school and club female sports teams. 

One year later, West Virginia passed its Save Women’s Sports Act, barring male participation in secondary school and collegiate-level female sports.

Transgender students challenged each ban in litigation that culminated in the Supreme Court’s Tuesday decision to uphold them.

In the meantime, the Wyoming Legislature in 2023 passed a ban on male competition in public, interscholastic female sports from grades 7-12.

It replaced Wyoming’s prior, case-by-case administrative evaluation system for individual students. Idaho and West Virginia had similar, case-by-case systems in place before they passed their respective bans in 2020 and 2021.  

Gordon let the Wyoming bill pass into law without his signature — and at the time derided it as “draconian” and “discriminatory.”

“While he supports and agrees with the overall goal of fairness in competitive female sports,” said a March 17, 2023, 

, the governor believed the ban to be “overly draconian, is discriminatory without attention to individual circumstances or mitigating factors and pays little attention to the fundamental principles of equality.”  

The statement said Gordon believed the bill’s intent is “well-meaning as a way to protect the integrity and fairness of women’s sports in our state,” but that an outright ban “sends a harmful message that these individuals and their families do not deserve the same opportunities as others.”  

[{"type":"text","text":"The governor’s tone has changed since then."}]

On Jan. 13 of this year,  Gordon’s office announced he’d signed onto a 

Republican Governors Association statement

 urging the U.S. Supreme Court to “protect women’s sports.”

That coincided with the oral argument in the West Virginia and Idaho cases then still pending before the high court.

[{"type":"text","text":"Gordon applauded the court’s decision Tuesday."}]

“I welcome today’s United States Supreme Court ruling which upholds state legislation mandating that student-athletes participate on sports teams aligned with their biological sex at birth, as opposed to their gender identity,” says the Tuesday statement from the governor’s office. “(I) believe as a father of girls who competed in high school sports, that sports brings real value to young women’s lives and they deserve to be protected in that space. 

[{"type":"text","text":"\"This decision does just that.” "}]

Gordon’s spokeswoman did not respond by publication to a specific inquiry about the governor’s changed stance on this issue.

In an about-face, Gov. Mark Gordon lauded a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Tuesday upholding states' bans on trans participation in girls' sports. In 2023 he called Wyoming's first trans sports ban "draconian."

Daily Cartoon: July 9, 2021

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