GREEN RIVER - Luke Schafer thinks the folks in Pinedale are a lot like the folks in his northwest Colorado town of Craig.

Like Pinedale, Craig residents are fortunate to live in a small community, they enjoy clean air and water, beautiful vistas and scenery, hunting and fishing.

And like Pinedale, Craig may soon be inundated with oil and gas development, ready or not.

Craig and Steamboat Springs residents got to hear about the good, the bad and the ugly sides of natural gas development from a small contingent of visiting Pinedale residents, said Schafer, the Northwest Campaign Coordinator for the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

Pinedale town councilman David Smith and aerial photographer Rita Donham were among those who documented some of the changes around Pinedale and in Sublette County that have occurred since the natural gas boom hit the region in the late 1990s.

Schafer said there are several large natural gas projects proposed for the northwest Colorado area - including the massive Hiawatha project that could bring thousands of new coal-bed methane wells to Moffat County in northwest Colorado and southern Sweetwater County in southwest Wyoming- that many fear could bring Pinedale-like changes to their communities.

The "neighborly warning" from the Pinedale residents was a real eye-opener, particularly in regards to air quality issues, Schafer said.

Elevated levels of ozone, a noxious gas and respiratory irritant, around Pinedale last winter prompted Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality officials to issue five air pollution advisories, the first ozone warnings ever issued by the state.

The ozone advisories drew the ire and concern of local Pinedale residents, who attributed the increased ozone levels to oil and gas development in the nearby Jonah and Pinedale Anticline gas fields.

"I think one of the things that was most striking to me is how folks in Pinedale really didn't seem to think anything would happen quite so bad up there and (development) would be much simpler," Schafer said in a phone interview. "Then all of the sudden there was essentially a storm of development and with that storm came things like ozone levels that were worse than in the Los Angeles basin … and that's something for us here we find really shocking.

"We still enjoy relatively great air quality in Craig and hearing that some 1,100 wells managed to irreparably harm that Pinedale airshed … seeing that sort of change that quickly is very sobering."

Colorado Bureau of Land Management officials are getting ready to release their revision of the Little Snake Resource Management Plan, which will guide energy development in Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties.

Schafer said the plan is expected to allow for expanded energy development in the area. The plan will guide the development on nearly 2 million acres of public lands in northwest Colorado.

As part of the revision process, the agency has drafted an additional air quality analysis for the revised RMP. The analysis indicated that impacts from future oil and gas development alternatives in the plan would not exceed current air quality standards.

Smith told Craig residents industry has brought big changes to Pinedale, his hometown.

"The bottom line is, our air and water are being very, very seriously impacted by this development," Smith said in a coalition release.

Donham urged area residents to document the conditions in northwest Colorado now before things start to change.

"As an individual, you can collect your own data in your own backyard or on your ranch," she told residents. "Take inventory and work with" agencies such as the BLM.

"We're really glad they came down and I know driving for five hours to talk to a bunch of strangers wasn't the most tantalizing thing in the world for them, but we really appreciated them sharing their experiences with us," Schafer said. "The message they left us was first off, we need to be involved, and second, we need to figure out solutions before the problems present themselves."

Contact southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino at (307) 875-5359 or gearino@tribcsp.com