Powder River Poison — Maureen Meehan Aplin

A brutal stuggle in the cutthroat oil and gas industry; a devastating psychological game of cat and mouse; promises made with no intent to keep them �" all brewing in a small town on the outskirts of of the magnificent Big Horn Mountains in northern Wyoming.

Center stage: Butch Anderson, a born-in-the-saddle cowboy world famous for his days on the rodeo circuit who owns a pristine ranch with his wife on the outskirts of town. The problem: MethZap, a coalbed methane gas company, which promised the Andersons that the gas retrieved from their ranch would entitle them to receive large royalty checks and that the ranch would be returned to its immaculate condition once the mining was complete. Unfortunately, MethZap didn't keep its word to the Andersons, and when sludge oozes from the “Well from Hell,” contaminating their groundwater, destroying their rangeland, and poisoning the Powder River Basin, the Andersons hire Mary MacIntosh to represent them in a class-action toxic tort crusade that threatens to divide their community.

The questions remaining: How much do we owe the people we love? Are we all stewards of the environment? Could a multi-million dollar jury verdict be enough to replace what has been lost in the battle? In trying to win justice for her clients, Mac learns the answers to some of these questions and the value of respect for the environment, loved ones, and, most importantly, for herself.