To Frack or Not to Frack

Tuesday, June 25, Day 64

Today is our daughter-in-law Kayla's birthday.  We hope its a good one! 

As we left Garrison Dam, we turned back onto Route 200, and we had a discussion about whether these were plains or prairies.  Plains are large areas, flat land, with few trees. Prairies are rolling grassland.  So I guess we are in the prairies and grasslands now.  We are headed for the Badlands.

We spotted this plant out in the middle of nowhere.  It is the Beulah coal mine, which covers 9,000 acres and produces 2.9 million tons of coal per year.  It powers the Coyote Generating Station, which operates 24/7, produces 420 megawatts of power, and boasts that it surpasses North Dakota's environmental standards.  Hmmm

We thought we were going to see lots of open land, beautiful natural grasslands, and cows!

There are some rapeseed fields here, although they call them canola fields.

And lots of pretty streams.  One picture I didn't capture was a cow, standing literally shoulder deep in a stream like this.  (I know you are disappointed!)

Ok - this is pretty.

 I do see sand and alkalai in this soil.  It must be good only for grazing and not for farming.

And finally a different breed of cows besides Angus - these are Herefords.

Looks like the area continues to lose population.  I look at the census records and see that fewer people are living in these areas, as witness this abandoned church.

The soil is light brown, mixed with sand.  Doesn't look too fertile!

These old abandoned homesteads are so iconic.

 And old grain elevators.

We have made a time change and are now on Mountain Time. 

I saw a sign out here for 87th Avenue.  Really!

Then we spotted our first oil rig.

We discovered we are in the middle of a huge fracking area for shale oil called the Bakken Oil Shale  Formation .  It has recently been estimated that it contains about 7.4 billion barrels of oil, all now technically recoverable.   The formation covers Montana, North and South Dakota.   There is also an estimated 6.7 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, and another 53 million barrels of natural gas liquids.  The formation covers 200,000 square miles.

So this is a boom that puts all the gold rushes and Texas and Oklahoma oil booms to shame. Oil companies are competing to get the land rights, and they are desparately looking for workers.  They have set up these "man camps" with portable trailors. 

As you can imagine, people come from all walks of life.  Entire cities have to be set up for the camps to work. Food, water, laundry, entertainment, equipment, gas stations, better roads, etc.
Already there is trouble with fights, thefts, etc.  They need managers and purveyors for all of these camps in addition to the oil workers.  And they need law enforcement.

Natural gas being burned off.

Ah - This is what we came to see - the Natural Grasslands.  They cover a little over a million acres, and are a combination of state owned and privately owned land, much of it used for cattle grazing -- and now for oil leasing.   It doesn't seem like they stand much of a chance.

They are kind of pretty.

I haven't shown the pictures, but all of the roads are being widened and there are huge trucks coming and going.  And here we are, on the edge of the Badlands.

Almost every vehicle coming along is affiliated with the oil fields. 

Huge barrels are lined up waiting to be filled.

On the other side, you can see the hills of the Badlands, kind of like coming up on the edges of the Grand Canyon.

I think this was John's most disappointing day of driving.  First of all, we had to dodge all of the big rigs.  And then the roads were under construction, so there were no shoulders.  He felt that everywhere, there was DIRT.  He said North Dakota meant dirt to him.  It's kind of hard to see but this truck is covered in dirt!

So, "fracking" has enabled the oil companies to quadruple their production here in the last five years.  It was brought tens of thousands of new jobs to the area.  But, new wells are going in every month, which means another drill rig, well pad, pumpjack, debris pit, flare pit, storage tanks and access roads in what had been a pristine area.  Each new well requires 2000 "trucking events" to complete its setup and begin pumping oil.  And that's before all of the haul trips to take out the oil!  The noise and dust from the heavy traffic and pumping is constant.  You can see immediately a conflict between this, the Grasslands and the Badlands.