News
State officials discuss issues on oil in Antler
Scott Wagar
08/19/2014
With the large number of salt and oil spills in the Antler area, there have been a number of questions that local land owners, farmers and livestock producers have about the spills. With so many questions the North Dakota Department of Agriculture under Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring hosted a town hall meeting at the Antler Memorial Park to discuss a variety of issues with these individuals.
The meeting focused on mediations, regulation, reclamation between oil companies and land owners and crop producers.
Tom Bodine, deputy commissioner of the North Dakota Department of Agricultural, led the meeting along with Ken Junkert, director of administrative services for mediation of the North Dakota Department of Agriculture; Lynn Helms, director of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources and David Glatt, environmental health section chief for the North Dakota Department of Health.
“I think the meeting went very well with frank and open discussion about the concerns of landowners in oil country,” Bodine said.
“Commissioner Goehring strongly believes that such face-to-face public meetings are important to addressing landowner concerns by bringing together the departments overseeing energy development and those who have concerns with energy development,” he continued.
“We very much appreciate the large turn-out and the straight-forward dialogue on how government programs, such as the North Dakota Mediation Service, can best serve our citizens. The purpose of the Mediation Service is to help landowners resolve disputes, whether they be with creditors, government agencies or with companies involved in energy development.
“The three-pronged approach of ‘regulation, reclamation and mediation’ are keys to ensuring that North Dakota landowners’ issues are addressed,” Bodine added. “We understand that the dialogue must continue and look forward to working with landowners to address their concerns.”
When it came to mediation, Junkert encouraged those at the meeting to go through mediation instead of the courts, because mediation takes less time than litigation, its more affordable than court cases and the cases are confidential.
In a post meeting interview with Junkert, he stated that he felt the meeting went well.
“The Antler meeting provided an excellent opportunity to discuss options available through the North Dakota Mediation Service,” Junkert said. “NDMS offers a voluntary and confidential problem solving tool that assists landowners and others in resolving energy development disputes. We look forward to returning to the area and continuing the dialogue that was started by Commissioner Goehring.”
Helms primarily addressed new polices and updates in regulation and reclamation.
Helms spoke on such issues like notices of violations, inspectors to sites and penalties and fines for infringements.
Helms stated that most states in the country only hand out fines when laws are broken in the oil fields. However, Helms pointed out that in North Dakota fines play an important part in law violations, but also stated that North Dakota is the only state that can charge a Class C Felony to a crime.
When it came to inspectors, Helms said there are currently 15,000 wells in North Dakota with 470 wells per inspector. Helms added that in Bottineau County there will be three well inspectors.
Glatt spoke on the health departments’ mission with the mineral and resource department and stated that the health department’s goal is to try to bring the environment affected by oil and brine back to its original state as best as the department can.
Glatt was pleased with the meeting.
“Overall it was a good opportunity for landowners and the general public to discuss oil field development impacts, reporting and other issues of concern,” Glatt said. “The meeting gave the public an opportunity to voice their concerns and get feedback from various regulatory agencies.”
After the state officials spoke, individuals were granted the opportunity to ask question which included such questions from how legal notifications are given out over spills, dike sizes, flares that are not working in Bottineau County, and spills and its danger to crops, animals and the environment.
When it came to spills and dike sizes, Helms stated that notifications are sent out to the land owners when they are reported. If they are not reported, Helms encouraged individuals to notify the mineral resource department. He also stated that when a spill takes place inside the dike, it does not have to be reported; however, if a spill of any size goes over the dike then it must be reported.
As for dike sizes, Helms stated that the size of a dike has to be big enough to contain a spill from the largest tank on site along with one day’s production.
On the question of spills, Glatt stated sometimes it is not the volume of a spill, but where the spill takes place.
“You can have a 400 barrel spill but it might not be as bad as a 10 barrel spill that spills on crop land or an area where there is livestock,” Glatt said, who gave an example of a spill on a crop and the ag producer wanted to still harvest that part of the crop.
“We had to tell him no because we didn’t want that getting into the food chain line.”
Presently in Bottineau County, land owners are seeing a large number of flares that are not flaring. Glatt said that if these are discovered individuals should immediately call the health department so employees can investigate and take care of these situations.
Prior to the town hall meeting, the Bottineau and Renville chapters of the Farm Bureau and Bottineau County Farmers Union held a dinner which was served by the Antler Outlaws.
Individuals, who wish to learn more about these issues they can contact Bodine at (701) 328-2231, Junkert at (701) 328-4756, Helms at (701) 328-8020 and Glatt at (701) 328-5150.