Deb Thomas has lived along the Beartooth Front in Montana and Wyoming most of her life. A fifth generation Montana native, Deb and her husband settled down to raise their family in Clark, Wyoming, an ideal and pristine location until oil and gas infrastructure moved nearby a few years later. When the noise, air quality and disruption became intolerable, she decided to take action. She contacted Denny Larson of Global Community Monitor, a non-profit that helps establish air quality monitoring programs. The two formed a partnership that led to a Bucket Brigade initiative that was also at work in five additional states, resulting in the “Warning Signs” study. (Bucket Brigades are groups of concerned citizens who volunteer to be trained to measure local air quality using specially-designed buckets.) Since then, Deb has worked to effect change by raising awareness at all government levels about the environmental threats of uncontrolled oil and gas drilling, and by fostering relationships with tribal members, community activists and other stakeholders affected by fossil fuel development and its impacts on air quality.

www.labucketbrigade.org