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[{"type":"text","text":"I wonder what this knob does??"}]

Darwin 11 29 24

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Friday, November 29, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

I wonder what this knob does??

Daily Darwin: Friday, November 29, 2024

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.”

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

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

A Gillette woman was screaming, clutching her leg and suffering seizure-like convulsions in the middle of a parking lot early Friday morning after police say her ex-boyfriend deliberately drove his pickup into her, ran over her knee and sped away.

By the time officers caught up with Kristopher Paxton a short time later, police say he insisted he hadn't hit her.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then detectives showed him surveillance video."}]

Paxton watched the video twice before admitting to investigators the collision "could have been a moment of black-out rage," according to an affidavit of probable caused filed in his case.

Later, when detectives asked why he accelerated toward the woman, he offered another explanation.

"I think it may have been just blind aggression," he told investigators, according to the affidavit.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bar Fight"}]

The confrontation began hours earlier at Gillette's Fireside Bar, the affidavit says.

Police say Paxton and the victim had dated for about a year but were no longer together.

That night, another man drove the woman home from the bar after she asked for a ride, according to the affidavit. Not long after arriving at her apartment, she heard pounding on her doors and windows.

[{"type":"text","text":"The affidavit says Paxton had shown up demanding his belongings."}]

Witnesses told police the former couple shouted profanities at one another outside the apartment while the woman repeatedly told Paxton to leave.

[{"type":"text","text":"At one point, investigators say, Paxton climbed back into his truck."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Standing in front of the vehicle, the woman refused to move."}]

According to the affidavit, she told police Paxton warned, "If you don't f***ing move, I'll run your ass over."

Witnesses say he first backed up, turned the wheels so the truck pointed directly toward her, then accelerated.

The pickup's front bumper struck the woman in the torso. She fell to the pavement, and the truck's front left tire rolled over her right knee before Paxton drove away, wrote investigators wrote.

[{"type":"text","text":"A witness immediately called 911."}]

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

[{"type":"text","text":"When officers arrived, they found the woman on the ground screaming."}]

"My leg, my right leg," she cried repeatedly, according to the affidavit.

Police wrote that she writhed in pain, sobbed uncontrollably and began displaying seizure-like convulsions before she was transported by ambulance to a hospital.

Investigators later obtained surveillance footage from a nearby apartment.

[{"type":"text","text":"The affidavit says the video captured nearly the entire confrontation."}]

It shows Paxton arriving at the complex, arguing outside, reversing his truck, accelerating into the woman, knocking her to the ground, reversing again and driving away.

Deputies located Paxton and his blue 2007 GMC Sierra a short time later. Officers noted the smell of alcohol on him, along with bloodshot, watery eyes.

He admitted drinking fewer than two alcoholic beverages that evening and agreed to perform standardized field-sobriety tests. Police wrote they did not develop probable cause to arrest him for driving under the influence.

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

During questioning, detectives asked Paxton whether he had hit the woman with his truck.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Not to the best of my knowledge,\" he replied."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"After investigators pressed him again, Paxton changed his answer."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"I'm not saying I didn't,\" he told them."}]

Detectives then played approximately 39 seconds of surveillance video twice.

Even after watching the footage, police say Paxton claimed he had no memory of the collision.

Based on witness interviews, surveillance footage and the victim's injuries, investigators concluded Paxton intentionally used his pickup as a deadly weapon.

He was arrested without incident and booked into the Campbell County Detention Center.

Paxton is charged with aggravated assault and battery, and misdemeanor leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury. If convicted of the felony aggravated assault charge, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

[{"type":"text","text":"A judge set his bond at $100,000 cash or surety."}]

Gillette police 5 31 23

<title>Gillette Man Blames 'Black-Out Rage' After Running Over Ex-Girlfriend With Truck | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Police say a Gillette man first denied hitting his ex-girlfriend with his pickup, running over her and speeding away. After detectives showed him surveillance video, police say he told them it "could have been a moment of black-out rage."

Gillette Man Blames 'Black-Out Rage' After Running Over Ex-Girlfriend With Truck

Public Safety

What first appeared to be an ordinary construction delay on a lonely stretch of highway west of Casper quickly turned into one of the 

 many of those involved had ever witnessed.

By the time emergency crews reached U.S. Highway 20/26 near mile marker 58 Friday afternoon, two people were dead, seven others had been injured, and strangers were comforting survivors, checking on children, searching for fire extinguishers and handing out bottled water.

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

"That was my aunt and uncle killed in the wreck Friday," their nephew Lee Wolfe told Cowboy State Daily. "They were on the way to their house in Ennis, MT. They lived in Golden, CO."

[{"type":"text","text":"He said the couple was traveling alone."}]

"It was just my aunt and uncle in their truck, no survivors," he said. "My two cousins and their families were heading up there at a different time thankfully."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Semi, Multiple Vehicles Involved"}]

The Wyoming Highway Patrol said the crash involved multiple vehicles, including a semi-truck.

"Two confirmed fatalities. Seven injured. Seventeen people involved, two flown by helicopter, the others were taken to Wyoming Medical Center by ambulance," Wyoming Highway Patrol spokesman Aaron Brown said. "This is still an active investigation." 

As of Monday afternoon, investigators had not released a preliminary cause of the crash, and no criminal charges had been filed.

The Natrona County Coroner's Office said it is investigating the fatalities along with the Wyoming Highway Patrol and Natrona County Sheriff's Office.

[{"type":"text","text":"Krista Nethercott of Jackson never saw the crash itself."}]

She had been traveling toward Casper with a neighbor after taking her son to enroll in college when traffic suddenly came to a stop.

[{"type":"text","text":"At first, she assumed the delay was caused by nearby road 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 waiting several minutes, she said she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

She stepped out of her vehicle and walked toward the front of the traffic backup.

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

Nethercott said she immediately ran toward the wreckage to make sure someone had called 911 and to offer whatever help she could.

She said she told him, "I'm a funeral director. I'll help you. I'm not scared to see death." 

Working with another bystander, she checked on the occupants of one of the most severely damaged vehicles — the Coxes' pickup.

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

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

The truck was crushed so badly, she said, that she believed rescuers ultimately would need the jaws of life 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."

Despite witnessing the aftermath firsthand, Nethercott said she has no idea what caused the collision.

"I don't know if the semi-trailer didn't slow down and ran into people, or if somebody was trying to pass too many vehicles. I couldn't ascertain that at all. It was just mass metal and cars," she said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Before The Sirens"}]

The crash occurred about 45 miles northwest of Casper, and Nethercott estimated it was roughly 30 minutes before ambulances and fire crews 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 vehicles arrived, however, strangers had already organized themselves.

Nethercott estimated around 10 people got out of their vehicles and immediately began helping.

One man walked the line of stopped traffic asking whether anyone had a fire extinguisher. Another, who identified himself as working at a pediatric clinic, examined a young child who remained safely strapped into a five-point car seat while the boy's injured father tried to comfort him.

Others brought camping chairs for survivors to sit in while Nethercott handed out bottled water from her vehicle.

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

[{"type":"text","text":"The scene itself was almost impossible to comprehend."}]

An older Colorado couple have been identified as the two people killed in a Friday multi-vehicle crash west of Casper. "We made sure she wasn't alone,” said a Jackson woman who was among those who stopped to help the couple and others hurt in the crash.

Daily Darwin: Friday, November 29, 2024

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