Coal dust runoff inundates family's organic garden

"The crisis facing the Gulf Coast from a leaking deep sea oil well seems to be at the top of the heap as environmental disasters go, with serious long term consequences affecting the health and livelihood of thousands of people.

But a recent incident in Crawford shows that even a small scale pollution event can be devastating to those it affects, and the consequences can spread widely throughout the community.

Robert E. Buckley, his son Robert Allen Buckley and Allen’s wife, LaDonna, have been growing a garden on the back lot of their home at 607 Elm Street in Crawford for years, and regularly selling their produce at the Chadron Farmer’s Market, the Natural Foods Coop and other places. The three-quarter acre plot has yielded bumper crops of carrots, squash, watermelon, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, beets, tomatoes, raspberries and strawberries and the Buckleys say they have supplied fresh produce to families in an area from Lusk, Wyo., to Edgemont, S.D., to Hay Springs and Alliance. “We estimate 250 families a summer (get produce),” Allen Buckley said last week."

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