As far as I know, farmers aren't under some duty to report concerning phone mysteries or whatever. Also, a lot of "commoners" aren't exactly deemed credible and may also not know who on earth they should report anything to.

Until this became a big campaign with a point of contact and so forth, he probably had no hope of getting any real action, even if he had put it all together mentally and tried to harangue authorities into checking out his theory.

if he saw this as a young man/child, chances are it was cool and interesting, but informing law enforcement/environmental agencies was not top of mind.. its only when you cross paths with some other bit of information, your memory triggers, and now as an adult, you might think to speak up.