sidney herald tappin bakken

Tappin’ the Bakken For the ninth year,

the Sidney Herald’s“Tappin’ the Bakken” is the most informative and longest-running oil section in the MonDak region.

Spring 2013 edition

Photo by Louisa Barber 310 2nd Ave. NE, Sidney, Montana 433-2403 • www.sidneyherald.com

The 17th biannual issueSunday, April 28, 2013

Special Supplement to the

Tappin’ the Bakken 2 Sunday, april 28, 2013 Sidney Herald

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Tappin’ the BakkenSIDNEY HERALD SuNDAY, ApRIL 28, 2013 3

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Impact coalition starting regional, in-depth look at energy impacts. ... 4

Studies show oil industry’s impact in billion of dollars ...................... 6

Governor thanks area for working to boost state economy ............... 8

Job listings in Sidney remain high as economy stays strong .............. 9

Highway study predicts roadways most affected by oil activity ....... 10

Clean Harbors brings new technology with acquisition .................. 11

Richland County oil and gas revenue comparisons ........................ 13

Regional law enforcement reflects county’s struggles ...................... 15

Area schools oil and gas payment .............................................. 20

Daines says Bakken creates new jobs, allows people to return home ................................................... 22

Eastern Montana Energy Expo .................................................... 23

Oil well years in the making in Sidney ......................................... 24

Mega Fairview transloading facility follows rail-building trend ........ 26

Workers comp insurer launches regional safety campaign ............. 32

Baucus: Montana treasures fuel brighter future .............................. 34

Tester: Closer to energy independence ......................................... 35

Residents see highway traffic as economy thermometer .................. 36

Barnett family wants to ‘put down roots’ in Richland County ........... 37

No word yet on Keystone pipeline .............................................. 38

No oil boom in eastern Montana? Really? ................................... 39

Development highlights need for responsibility, balance ................. 41

Young natives return home to start careers in area ........................ 42

Groups want better well inspections ............................................ 44

Federal hydraulic fracturing study still under way .......................... 47

County officials adjusting to big changes in landscape .................. 48

A & I Distribution ............................................ 33Advanced Communications .............................. 49Advantage Drilling Fluids ................................. 43Ameriprise Financial ........................................ 33Ameritest Inc. .................................................. 16Anchor Drilling Fluids USA, Inc ......................... 35B & B Builders................................................... 5B & B Builders, General Contractors .................. 43Badlands Steel ................................................ 18Bakken Fence ................................................. 32Blue Water Drug Collections ............................... 8Boomer’s Garage ............................................ 27Border Steel & Recycling, Inc. ........................... 23Bozeman Brick................................................ 30CHS Farmers Elevator ...................................... 21Clean Harbor ................................................. 51Continental Resources ...................................... 52Diamond B Oilfield Trucking, Inc ....................... 22Doorbust’n Portables & Septic Service, LLC......... 47Eagle Country Ford ......................................... 12Eagle Oilfield Services ..................................... 17Elk River Printing ............................................. 24Empire Oil Company ....................................... 33EMS Electric Motor Supply ................................. 2Enerplus ......................................................... 42Fairlight Medical ............................................... 7

Fairview School .............................................. 45Farm & Home Supply ...................................... 41Foundation for Community Care ......................... 8Franz Construction, Inc. ................................... 31Golden Field Services ...................................... 45H & L Rentals Well Service ............................... 38Haul Lass, LLC ................................................ 20High Caliber Sports ......................................... 31Hiland Partners ................................................. 6Hi-Line Trucking, Inc. ....................................... 41Holiday Inn Express & Suites ............................ 14Hot Wheels Services ....................................... 43Hunter Light .................................................... 17Hurley’s Oilfield Service ................................... 19I.I.S. Services, Inc............................................ 19Industrial Automation ......................................... 2Industrial Equipment Sales & Service ................. 18Interstate Engineering ........................................ 3Interstate Industrial Steam

Cleaning & Painting, Inc. ............................... 19Interstate Power Systems .................................. 44J & L Fencing & Pitliners ................................... 24John Crane ....................................................... 9JP Falco ......................................................... 43KB’s Bubbles ..................................................... 6KC Sandcastle & KC Transport, LLC ................... 11

Kenyon Noble Lumber Yard .............................. 28Kenyon Noble Lumber Yard .............................. 29KLJ ................................................................ 41Knapp Oil Corporation .................................... 11Kohler Communications, Inc. ............................ 27Kringen Construction, Inc. ................................ 26Landtech Enterprises, LLC ................................. 38Lambert Public School ...................................... 45Lower Yellowstone Rural Electric Assn. Inc. ......... 48MD Hose & Fitting ............................................. 5Miller Insulation Co. Inc. .................................. 50Mitchell’s Oilfield Service ................................. 39Modern Machine Works, Inc. ........................... 47Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. ............................ 20Nabors .......................................................... 40NAPA .............................................................. 3Netzer Law Office, PC ..................................... 12Northern States Fishing Tools Company, Inc. ...... 34NOV Willson ................................................. 48Oil & Gas Properties Petroleum Land Services .... 22Park Plaza Motel ............................................. 27Petroleum Experience ...................................... 33PJ’s Auto Glass & Radiator ............................... 20Plains Pipeline .................................................. 7Prairie Petro-Chem of America, LLP .................... 44Pro Build ........................................................ 46

Rau Designs ..................................................... 9Rauschendorfer Construction ............................ 23Red Rock Transportation .................................. 39Reese & Ray’s IGA .......................................... 45Reynolds Market ............................................. 45Richland Pump & Supply .................................. 35Ron’s Power Wash .......................................... 49SecurScreen ................................................... 49Sidney Cleaners & Laundry .............................. 46Sidney Red-E-Mix ............................................ 49Sidney Rental ................................................. 14S/L Services, Inc. ............................................ 21 Sonda’s Solutions ............................................ 10Sweley Oil, Inc ............................................... 12Telemasters Business Systems .............................. 2The Port of Lewiston ......................................... 50TNT Well Servicing, Inc. .................................. 37Tri County Implement ....................................... 15Triangle Electric, Inc. ......................................... 2Weatherford ................................................... 15WellPro, Inc ...................................................... 4Yellowstone Chiropractic .................................... 8Yellowstone Painting, Inc. ................................. 12XTO Energy .................................................... 21

Table of contents - stories

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By Louisa BarBerSidney Herald

Residents of eastern Montana have been well aware of the consequences, good and not so good, that energy car-ries.

Cities and counties report direct impacts in the tens of millions of dol-lars alone, yet no one’s ever definitively pinpointed exact figures, nor produced data on that would accurately predict how much more hardship communities will face and what type. Until now.

CoLLaBorators, not CompetitorsThe Eastern Montana Impact Coali-

tion formed last year when, during an economic development conference in Helena, four economic development directors representing the 16-county region lamented the effects the energy boom places on their areas. Housing, law enforcement, fire departments, hos-pitals, infrastructure; similar in nature.

So many issues, how does one begin to even make a dent? Perhaps, a bit of cooperation.

Ordinarily, economic development or-ganizations compete against each other, all vying for the same pots of monies, hungry to finance needed projects in

their counties. But with an economic phenomenon as massive as this Bak-ken play, these economic development corporation leaders realized competi-tion just won’t work. What if the entire region worked together to secure addi-tional funds from the federal level?

Hence, the impact coalition. The year-old group comprises repre-

sentation from the 16-county region: Richland Economic Development, Great Northern Development, Southeastern Montana Economic Development and Eastern Plains Economic Development.

“We did research about it, and there’s is nothing like this collaboration any-where else in the nation,” RED execu-tive director Leslie Messer said.

outreaCh meetingAt the end of 2012, momentum behind

the revolutionary idea began to grow. The economic development agencies combined their grant applications and were successfully awarded $228,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce to hire a resource coordinator and a regional planner, and to conduct an impact study.

Then, back in March, the coalition held a two-day outreach seminar in Miles City to gather input from the pub-

lic to identify the most pressing issues facing eastern Montana communities. City council members, county commis-sioners, planning, public works, public health, job service and other public representation discussed issues in small groups and assembled a list of the most critical issues.

The overall top five priorities that need addressing, identified by those

who attended (roughly 60 on day one and 30 on day two), are as follows:

1) additional funding to address impacts

2) housing shortage3) develop a favorable regulatory

environment to encourage commercial development

4) support for public health and safety

impact coalition starting regional, in-depth look at energy impacts

SuBmitted

Participants of the outreach meeting in Miles City share thoughts during a group session.

see study, page 5


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agencies5) address deteriorating

roads and increased traffic

The sTudyAt present, consultants with

Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle are working to identify housing, infrastructure, public safety and workforce demand at a regional level, a $146,000 endeavor. Three months into it, JLL managing director Bob Hunt tells the Herald he and his team have begun study-ing economic impacts at the ground level, from examining direct and indirect employment from the oil and gas industry to calculating the number of truck trips per oil, gas and wa-ter well. The planning consult-ing firm will also track the oil drilling cycle and its impacts on roads. The broad-based intelligence gathering should help indicate how many people are needed to be hired by law enforcement agencies, how many teachers and support-ing staff, along with personnel required for the retail services

and food industry. The consulting team plans to

use drilling permits to estimate the initial impacts for east-ern Montana, while utilizing geological maps from the state that show a true representa-tion of the oil reserves in the region and compare it to North Dakota.

For example, the consulting team is implementing a model that predicts impacts under the assumption that Montana only sees 10 percent of North Dakota’s activity. If companies in North Dakota are currently drilling 2,000 wells per year there, the baseline model would evaluate the impacts of Mon-tana drilling 200 wells a year. If these assumptions need to be adjusted up or down, the model could easily incorporate these new assumptions. This is important since the future is uncertain and impacts will hit communities in eastern Mon-tana at different rates. The goal is to put together a model that is a valid predictor of impacts relative to the extent and loca-tion of wells.

The study is broad-based, requiring coordination from several entities, and at the end of it, the coalition should have data that predicts the demand on various things such water, wastewater, affects on roads and housing, and public services, etc., and be able to compare those facts and figures to current infrastructure so lo-cal governments know the type, magnitude and timing of these impacts, so that communities can prioritize their needs and take action.

“A key goal of the study is to arm local communities with really a good and readily adapt-able tool to predict impacts, so that they can have an informed conversation about the future of their community,” Hunt said.

But while the macro-level study will address regional impacts that the region shares, the Eastern Montana Impact Coalition is looking to drill down even further to the specific community level. After all, cities and towns deal with problems on different scales.

One issue may be larger in Fairview, for example, than in Ekalaka.

If fully funded, researchers could create a model that deter-mines the effect on real estate, public services and infra-structure based on the rate of energy development. “Honestly, I think that’s where the real value is,” Hunt said.

Big picTureCoalition members say that

this sweeping data will help persuade oil and gas companies to donate funds to mitigate im-pacts; companies need concrete numbers to contribute.

“Before now, I could only say we are being impacted,” RED’s Messer said. “Our streets, our services, our infrastructure, we know that. But now I can quantify that with this study and these numbers.”

The broader scope, however, is to secure federal dollars that the economic development cor-porations wouldn’t have been able to obtain if they had con-tinued to work separately. The coalition wants to become a

non-profit organization, so that with the impact study, the coali-tion could approach federal agencies like the Department of Energy for funds, and if the president chooses to invest money on the ground to help mitigate impacts, the coalition would serve as the distributor.

“What we’re doing is chang-ing the way things are done, thinking outside of the box…” says Martin DeWitt of Great Northern Development, “and the opportunities that we have in eastern Montana and obvi-ously in western North Dakota has potential to change not only our local economy, but our national economy if this is ac-tually backed at a federal level to really push forward and do this stuff.”

Underlying the coalition’s goals, lead study consultant Hunt says there stands just one mission: Anticipating energy impacts and investing in local communities to carry them through, creates jobs, increases the tax local base and, in the long run, reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil.

study: Researchers could create model that affects services, infrastructurefrom page 4


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A North Dakota State University study revealed that the oil and gas industry contributed more than $30.4 billion to the state’s economy in 2011.

The study, funded by the North Dakota Petroleum Council, found that direct impacts from the industry were $11.7 billion. Nearly 60,000 jobs were created, with 40,856 directly tied to oil and gas, accounting for 9 percent of the state’s workforce.

The study concluded that for every $1 spent, another $1.59 in additional busi-ness activity was generated, and each barrel of oil generated about $150 in economic activity or about $4.8 million per well annually.

“Since our first impact study of economic impacts in 2005, we have seen the petroleum industry emerge as an important new engine of economic di-versity and growth for the state, both in terms of direct impacts seen in western North Dakota and in secondary impacts felt statewide,” said Dean Bangsund, NDSU research scientist and co-author

of the study. “North Dakota has an enor-mous potential for economic stability in its economy that can come from the continued development of oil resources in the state.”

The industry contributed $11.6 billion in economy-wide personal income: The study reveals that the oil and gas industry contributed $11.6 billion in economy-wide personal income, includ-ing $798.1 million in in-state private

studies show oil industry’simpact in billion of dollars

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royalties and $322 million in lease bonuses.

The oil and gas industry generated $2.65 billion in government revenues: According to the study, the oil and gas industry generated $2.65 billion in gov-ernment revenues, including:

• $1.3 billion in gross production and severance taxes;

• $303 million in royalties, includ-ing $145 million in state royalties, $40 million in federal royalties returned to North Dakota, and $117 million in tribal royalties;

• $106 million in state and federal lease bonuses;

• $454 million in sales and use, corpo-rate and personal income, property and other taxes;

• $86.5 million in licenses, permits and fees;

• $8.5 million in charitable donations;• $395 million in indirect state govern-

ment general tax collections.The report also indicates the oil and

gas industry supports non-industry business activity statewide, contribut-ing $7.4 billion in retail sales.

Montana statsThe Montana Petroleum Association,

in an effort to educate the public about the economic benefits of the oil and gas industry operations, released a similar economics report that documents em-ployment and tax revenue for 2011.

The oil and gas industry in Montana accounted for 7,499 jobs directly related to it and 20,920 jobs indirectly related.

Montana refineries paid nearly $21 million in taxes, while more than 15,000 businesses paid roughly $20 million in state corporate income taxes. Pipeline property taxes totaled more than $57.5 million statewide.

Oil and gas wells generated $230 mil-lion in production taxes, while another $150 million was distributed to counties where production took place.

Surveys from just five of the petro-leum association’s members revealed

that more than $3 million in donations was awarded to schools, charities, emergency medical personnel, college scholarships, infrastructure and fire departments.

ExtEnsivE iMpactFrom an economist’s standpoint, the

energy industry’s impact to Montana’s economy is actually much broader. The whole state is benefitting from the Bak-ken, from industrial construction and manufacturing, to hotel construction, to transportation and food services.

And consider this: Montanans from all over the state have found ways to par-ticipate in the Bakken play, and people are aware of it.

The chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, representing one of the state’s highest unemployment regions, says he hears the “giant suck-ing sound” of work luring northwest Montana residents eastward. “I know several people that commute back and forth,” Sen. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, said. “We would love to be having those prob-lems over here.”

In one word, the Bakken is “huge” to

the state’s economy, says Patrick Barkey, director of the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research. Barkey tells the Herald that after the Great Recession, Montana was one of a handful of states that wasn’t forced to hold a special legisla-tive session to cover a deficit. Without energy, however, “that would’ve been highly unlikely.” The state saw its worst decline ever over a two-year period, after the recession hit. Every county, even Richland, was touched when gas prices dropped. “Without energy, there’s wouldn’t have been that rebound in the east part of the state,” Barkey said, “and Montana would’ve had a much more serious revenue issue.”

North Dakota, not surprisingly, was the only state that didn’t see impacts from the recession that touched the rest of the country, especially in places where local economies depend on hous-ing markets. The state had just begun ramping up its oil drilling. “Without oil, North Dakota would’ve been just like every other state,” Barkey concluded.

Bureau director emeritus Paul Polzin calls Richland County the bright spot

for Montana, directing attention to the west side of the state which is still re-covering. “Look at Missoula. We haven’t yet got back to pre-recession peak,” he said.

From 2011-2012, the real wages in almost all of the eastern Montana counties grew by more than 6 percent, compared to the west end which saw negative 1.4 percent growth. Economists have not yet figured out a mechanism to track how western Montana residents, working in the Bakken, benefit their home communities, but they are aware of the movement. “How large is it? I re-ally don’t have an answer,” Barkey said.

The Bakken oil activity’s “huge” im-pact on the state’s economy has become so significant, it’s changing long-standing patterns of economic activity, wherein the west side grew quicker than the east. “In some ways that’s true,” Barkey said, “but the east is such a big outlier that it’s tilted the playing field. We are seeing, collectively, rural coun-ties capturing quite a bit of the state’s growth.”

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impact: Economist considers Richland County Montana’s ‘bright spot’ froM pagE 6

LARENE LILY GRoNDAHL | SIDNEY HERALD

Like in much of the Bakken, several trucks line a county road near Dickinson, N.D.

By Steve BullockMontana governor

Montana is famous for its pristine landscapes. Our clean air, water and wildlife habitat are the envy of many. These lands have also blessed us with an abundance of natural resources that have allowed the state to be a net exporter of energy products for de-cades. As governor, I take great pride in utilizing Montana’s energy resources to provide good-paying jobs for Montanans and support for our schools, while safe-

guarding our quality of life. The economic impacts of this devel-

opment are substantial, and Montanans also expect that we will protect our outdoor heritage, communities and agricultural producers. That’s why my administration is committed to main-taining sustainable and responsible de-velopment of our energy resources for a net benefit to the state and its citizens.

Our natural resources have provided for our greatest resource, our kids, for decades. I want my kids – and all kids in this state – to have the same opportuni-

ties that I did. We owe it to our children to make use of these resources in a manner that enhances the opportunities they have and protects the lands they call home.

Montana’s fossil fuel industries have provided over $250 million in tax collec-tions to state and local governments ev-ery year for the last five years running. In 2012, the portion of fossil fuel indus-try taxes collected and allocated to the state constituted about 5 percent of all state general fund revenue. This oil, gas and coal revenue is very important to maintaining Montana’s educational ex-cellence as well as other public services. My administration is strongly encourag-ing federal approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. We are also working hard to assure that regulatory processes are effi-cient, accurate and provide consistency and certainty for developers. That’s why we are supporting legislation that will provide more flexibility for gravel operations and improve the permitting process.

I will actively seek resolution to any issues that hinder Montana’s respon-sible energy development opportuni-ties. In Montana, we work best when we work together. That’s why I recently cre-ated a Sage Grouse Advisory Council, so we can maintain our management and

control of this important game species and continue to collectively shape our energy future. We must also address the needs of our communities affected by booming energy development. I have asked the Legislature to provide significant funding to jump start efforts to upgrade infrastructure in eastern Montana, and have directed state agen-cies to prepare a comprehensive review of infrastructure needs in communities affected by oil and gas development.

The people of Sidney and Richland County know the incredible opportuni-ties in our state for energy development. Thanks for all you are doing to boost the state’s economy, provide quality employment for Montanans, and move the nation toward a more secure energy future.


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By Louisa BarBerSIDNEY HERALD

Montana’s unemployment statistics are off to an encouraging start for the year, staying under 6 percent for Janu-ary and February at 5.6 percent.

Montana’s unemployment rate has been on a downward trend since the end of 2010, although economic gains have slowed in recent months because of lower federal government spending and because consumer spending has been constrained by the expiration of the payroll tax cut and higher gasoline prices. Montana’s unemployment rate has remained flat at the 5.6 percent or 5.7 percent level for the last four months, as the economy added about 500 jobs, ac-cording to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry.

The national rate fell by .1 percent in March to 7.6 percent when the economy added just 88,000 jobs. Richland County, as is usual over the last few years, is a bright spot. It remains the second lowest unemployment rate at 2.5 percent (non-seasonally adjusted) right behind Fallon County at 2 percent and followed by Wibaux County at 2.6 percent.

At Sidney Job Service, the number of walk-ins at the Central Avenue office “significantly slowed” from August 2012 to January 2013. But since the first of the year, phone calls and door traffic continue to uptick as are the number of job postings. “We continue to see growth and expansion of businesses in the area,” manager Vernette Torgerson said. Often, job seekers find work but can’t secure housing, so the office continues to provide hygiene items in the bathroom specifically for those who have no place else to turn to clean up or don’t have the ability to purchase items.

Here’s a quick run down of the job service’s statistics:

• As of March 26, there were 286 job

postings. • For comparison, in 2005, 446 jobs

were posted for the year. By 2011, that number rose to 1,035 and 1,383 in 2012. “This year we have already had 402 jobs posted,” Torgerson said.

• There hasn’t yet been a peak in the number of listings. The number of opens has increased over the last four years, and this doesn’t appear to be dif-ferent.

• The most popular industries to post jobs have remained the same since 2005: Construction, food service, health care, schools, law enforcement and truck driv-ing are most common.

economy Richland County’s economic engine –

though bolstered by mining that in-cludes oil and gas – remains agriculture accounting for about 38 percent of the base.

Mining currently accounts for roughly 30 percent of the economic base, plus an additional 10-12 percent for trucking and pipelines. The county, according to a study by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, has grown to almost 19 percent from 2001 to 2012, reversing a decades-old trend of losing rural population. Median household income in 2011 for Richland County was $57,413.

“Richland County is 40 percent greater now than it was at the beginning of the decade,” Paul Polzin, director emeritus at the bureau, said during an economic outlook seminar in Sidney earlier this year.

In Richland County alone, for 2011, there were 100 jobs in oil and gas extrac-tion; 102 in drilling; 384 in support activi-ties and 33 jobs in transportation. But even though oil and gas drilling remains “quite volatile,” Richland still has other industries like sugar beets that lend some stability to the local economy.

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Results from a study conduct-ed by the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute for the Montana Department of Trans-portation indicate there’s no slow-down in sight for Richland County’s busiest roads.

“As long as oil development continues, there’s going to be sustained traffic,” says lead author Alan Dybing.

The results were published in February and are being used to estimate future truck traffic growth as a result of oil exploration and development in the Bakken formation on the Montana side, and cross-border movements arising from devel-opment in North Dakota.

The study comes after MDT officials requested the transpor-tation institute at North Dakota State University conduct a simi-lar study to one it performed for the North Dakota Department of Commerce. The results were presented to the state’s legis-lature to determine where to put the funding to address road infrastructure.

summaryThe Montana study took a

look at truck traffic along the state’s highways in northeast Montana, from Dawson and Wibaux counties to Valley and Sheridan counties. The most recent truck traffic counts are from 2011 which indicated that the volume was heaviest on the Glendive-Fairview corridor, averaging 625 to 1,407 trucks. The closer to North Dakota, the higher the traffic count.

Researchers studied points where there’s oil transportation activity: frack sand facilities, fresh water, gravel and scoria pits, saltwater disposal sites, rail or pipeline sites.

They implemented scenarios of 20, 40, 60, 80 and 160 rigs operating in Montana, using computer data analysis, to predict which highways will generate the most truck traffic out to 2031.

Interstate 94 and highways 16 and 200 are most likely to grow truck traffic exponentially, i.e., carry between 1,001 and 3,000 trucks daily. Mostly in Richland, Dawson and Wibaux

counties. MDT officials want to use the

results in their planning for pavement impacts in conjunc-

tion with other traffic analyses. The data generally supported what was already being record-ed on the ground.

“I was a little surprised that although the rig count did affect truck volumes, it didn’t affect it to the extent I thought it might,” Shane Mintz, MDT’s Glendive District administrator, said.

According to an MDT study of pavement impacts due to Bakken development, the agen-cy expects to spend $563,506,194 over a 20-year period on con-struction costs to its highways if oil development doesn’t grow, and more than $1.5 billion over the same period based on a 20-rig scenario.

Results of the study have begun to be implemented. “The department has devel-oped an “oil-boom” surfacing design that is being applied to all programmed projects on the highways identified in the study,” Mintz said.

To view the results, visit www.mdt.mt.gov/research/projects/pave/oil.shtml.

[email protected]

Highway study predicts roadways most affected by oil activity

The impact scenario predicts which highways would be most affected if there were 20 rigs operating in eastern Montana in 2031.

406-433-SAND (7263)101 10th Ave. SE • Sidney MT ~ 35212 CR 127 • Sidney, MT

[email protected]

Frac Sand Hauling • Trans Load Services • Fly Ash to LocationBulk & Bag Storage • Rail Services • Winch Truck

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XNLV81431

Knapp Oil Corporation

David Knapp James Knapp

Leases Minerals Investments

122 2nd Avenue SW

P.O. Box 786

Sidney, MT 59270

Office: 406-482-1502

Fax: 406-482-5836


Seeking to secure a larger foothold in Williston Basin, Massachusetts-based Clean Harbors last year purchased NFB Excavation, Sidney, bringing in a multi-tude of experienced, professional staff while making serious technological investments to improve operations.

Clean Harbors is a leading provider of environmental, energy and industrial services throughout North America. In the Bakken, the company operates an industrial hazardous disposal facility in Sawyer, N.D., with other locations in Dickinson and Watford City, N.D. Its services in oil field transportation and production include water and vac truck services, tank cleaning and daylight-ing for pipeline construction, and by acquiring the excavation company, it provides rig cleaning services and hydro excavation.

TechnologyThe company is quickly improving

local operations in Sidney and western North Dakota by supplying employees with innovative handheld devices that help workers meet customer demands quickly, ultimately saving them and Clean Harbors precious time and money.

Within the Bakken/Three Forks

area, Clean Harbors is one of the earli-est adopters of these devices for use in management and maintenance to improve overall equipment reliability, customer service and, in the long run, to help reduce operating costs.

Darin Hauck, senior vice president of Clean Harbors oil field transportation and production services, speaks highly of the technology that will move the company forward as it does business in

the Bakken. The mobile computer devices, like

iPads, are GPS-enabled capable of performing multiple tasks seamlessly without incident. Handheld computers have excellent mobility with a slew of applications to complete assignments, from equipment dispatching and fleet management, to sales.

Employees issue electronic invoices on site, eliminating the need for multi-

ple copies. Better accuracy and com-pleteness results in correct pricing. The technology makes the employees’ jobs easier. These mobile devices are part of a system to enable the supplier to have real-time visibility into the state of the equipment.

“We’ve got 500 in place now,” Hauck said, “and the Sidney location is in the early stages of implementing the devices.” I think that’s going to be the future,” he said.

SafeTy, efficiencySafety is key to Clean Harbors’

interests and operations. It’s actually a founding principle. In Sidney, Clean Harbors brought extensive safety training and job-site monitoring. The company boasts a strong health and safety record. Because safety is a top priority, a company-wide program called SafetyFirst! was launched to ensure employee safety remains there. According to its website, Clean Harbors demonstrates “through our words and actions that we will reinforce acceptable safety practices and stop unsafe acts before they become a statistic,” it reads. “SafetyFirst! is not just a slogan – it’s our commitment to keep the protection

clean harbors brings new technology with acquisition

SuBmIttED

Clean Harbors is a leading provider of environmental, energy and industrial services throughout North America.

See company, pAgE 14


YELLOWSTONE PAINTING, LLC

• Painting • Pressure Washing • Tank Coatings • Sandblasting

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Park ADD:Park Designer:

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Percentage based on Polk U.S. light duty pickups; Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado 1500, GMC Sierra 1500, Chevy Avalanche 1500, Ram 1500, Toyota Tundra & Nissan Titan combined new registrations 2011 CYE to 2012 CYTD (May) within Conservation and Environmental Quality, Livestock Production, Auto Repair Services, Electric Gas and Sanitary Services, Emergency Vehicles, Government, Heavy Construction, National Security, Transportation Services, Hazardous Materials, Road Maintenance, Oil Pipelines, Manufacturing and Farming. Percentage based on Polk U.S. heavy-duty pickup and class 2-5 Conventional Chassis Cab combined new registrations (CYTD June 2011 - YE 2010) within Emergency Vehicles, Mining/Quarrying, Construction, Petroleum, Metal Mining, Executive Legislative & General Govt, Petroleum Re� ning & Related Inds Mfrs, Electric Gas & Sanitary Services, Mining & Quarrying-Nonmetallic Minerals, Justice Public Order & Safety, Heavy Construction Except Building, Forestry/Lumber Products, Manufacturing, Agriculture/Farm, Sanitation/Refuse, Agricultural Production-Livestock, Utility Services, Road/Highway Maintenance, Specialized/Heavy Hauling, Oil & Gas Extraction and General Freight vocations.

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Experienced In Eastern Montana

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Richland County oil and gas revenue comparisons

Fiscal Year QuarterTotal Revenue Collected

Richland Co. Contributions

Money retained by state To all counties

To Richland County

To RC County Gov.

2006-2007 2006 1 $48,159,165 $16,600,568 $25,889,308 $22,269,857 $7,902,611 $3,631,2502 $52,582,180 $19,618,325 $28,604,000 $23,978,180 $9,312,660 $4,279,1673 $56,014,548 $22,271,286 $30,035,690 $25,978,858 $10,579,532 $4,861,2954 $48,565,918 $18,925,596 $26,238,649 $22,327,268 $8,984,220 $4,128,249

Total $205,321,811 $77,415,775 $110,767,647 $94,554,163 $36,779,023 $16,899,961

2007-2008 2007 1 $50,196,265 $19,944,495 $27,092,740 $23,103,525 $9,467,418 $4,350,2792 $58,529,455 $23,159,499 $32,135,779 $26,393,676 $10,987,382 $5,048,7023 $62,909,112 $26,551,704 $34,206,734 $28,702,378 $12,604,188 $5,791,6244 $74,131,464 $31,512,083 $40,133,249 $33,998,215 $14,958,732 $6,873,538

Total $245,766,296 $101,167,781 $133,568,502 $112,197,794 $48,017,720 $22,064,143

2008-2009 2008 1 $83,895,426 $34,180,335 $45,166,426 $38,728,999 $16,225,404 $7,455,5732 $106,200,438 $40,834,000 $57,286,806 $48,913,632 $19,383,931 $9,800,8953 $96,500,034 $44,932,553 $51,997,854 $44,502,181 $21,329,479 $8,906,9164 $44,814,568 $18,589,308 $23,982,318 $20,832,250 $8,824,339 $4,054,784

Total $331,410,466 $138,536,196 $178,433,404 $152,977,062 $65,763,153 $30,218,168

2009-2010 2009 1 $32,361,772 $13,472,942 $17,305,188 $15,056,584 $6,395,600 $2,938,7782 $42,253,260 $18,992,172 $22,809,243 $19,444,018 $9,015,580 $4,142,6593 $45,954,851 $20,723,320 $24,810,898 $21,143,953 $9,837,360 $4,520,2674 $52,225,534 $22,798,486 $28,134,680 $24,090,855 $10,822,510 $4,972,943

Total $172,795,417 $75,986,920 $93,060,009 $79,735,410 $36,071,050 $16,574,647

2010-2011 2010 1 $54,596,665 $23,703,734 $29,330,866 $25,265,798 $11,252,155 $5,170,3652 $50,468,660 $22,181,042 $27,187,049 $23,281,611 $10,529,340 $4,838,2323 $49,811,109 $22,007,129 $26,832,217 $22,978,892 $10,446,791 $4,800,3014 $52,249,473 $22,889,152 $28,196,694 $24,052,778 $10,865,469 $4,992,683

Total $207,125,907 $90,781,057 $111,546,826 $95,579,079 $43,093,755 $19,801,581

2011-2012 2011 1 $54,355,616 $23,837,118 $29,418,661 $24,936,955 $11,315,480 $5,199,4632 $63,456,255 $28,264,275 $29,441,535 $29,141,415 $13,417,052 $6,165,1353 $55,013,569 $23,781,186 $29,743,431 $25,270,138 $11,288,935 $5,187,2664 $56,845,769 $26,111,122 $30,734,647 $26,111,122 $11,472,805 $5,271,754

Total $229,671,209 $101,993,701 $119,338,274 $105,459,630 $47,494,272 $21,823,618

2012-2013 2012 1 $51,886,634 $23,259,833 $27,928,830 $23,843,998 $11,041,446 $5,073,5452 $48,250,081 $20,766,136 $27,483,945 $22,067,419 $9,857,684 $4,529,6063 $51,160,861 $21,917,778 $29,243,083 $23,386,313 $10,404,365 $4,780,806

Total $151,297,576 $65,943,747 $84,655,858 $69,297,730 $31,303,495 $14,383,957

GRAND TOTAL $1,543,388,682 $651,825,177 $831,370,520 $709,800,868 $308,522,469 $141,766,075


2508 Lincoln Ave. South, Sidney (County Road 350, North of Pacifc Steel & Recycling)406-433-8338 • Fax 433-8340 • Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. • Sat., 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

• Trailers • Forklifts• Man Lifts• Backhoes

• Generators • Skid-Steers• Compactors

XNLV84078

• Scissor Lifts• Light Towers• Excavators

(Minis and Larger) • Air Compressors

• Rough Terrain Cranes

• General Construction

XN

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116

251 West Holly St Sidney, Montana

(406) 433-32001 888 HOLIDAY (1 888 465 4329)

• Spacious rooms • Spacious suites that have a

microwave, fridge, sink and pull-out full-size couch for extra sleeping room

• In-door heated pool• Hot-tub• Kiddie pool • Birthday party room just off the pool• Fitness facility• Business center with computers,

printers• Free wi-fi • Meeting board room to rent and we

provide the coffee and water for you.

• Complimentary hot breakfast and a sundry shop that provides beverages and snacks

• Our area is mainly associates with the oil industry

of our fellow workers in the forefront of everything we do.”

And while health and safety are essen-tial to a successful, thriving operation, so is efficiency. That’s where equipment innovation enters. Clean Harbors is a big proponent of consolidating. It introduced a combination unit, essen-tially two trucks in one vehicle with a two-person crew. Used here in Sidney, the combined wash and vac truck saves customers time and money without the carbon footprint.

“Our strategy is to have structured, organized growth and have more equip-ment services to service the area,” Hauck said.

Clean Harbors has 20 drivers and laborers. It had grown to nine trucks under the previous NFB Excavation ownership. The site location is short on employees, and Clean Harbors contin-ues to seek additional workers, despite the regional housing crisis.

Clean Harbors baCkgroundOriginally founded in 1980 as an

emergency response and environmental clean-up company on the East Coast, Clean Harbors has expanded over the past 30 years to broaden its services

to more than 200 locations in 37 states, seven Canadian provinces, and in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Since 2009, Clean Harbors has cen-tered its focus on the oil and gas indus-try.

“I think we’re probably one of the leaders of the field,” Hauck said, “and that should give us some additional compliance efficiency ultimately result-ing in cost savings to our customers.”

Company: Features 20 drivers, laborersfrom page 11


We have bulk oil and a great selection of filters at

very competitive prices.

• DOT inspection • Lights • Brakes

• Engine Repair

2429 W. Holly St. Sidney, MT 488-4400

1-800-624-6540

Whether your operating application is

transportation, construction or

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Evaluations & Drilling Intervention

Tubular Running ServicesRental & Fishing Equipment

Wellhead Systems701.572.6714

Completion Services

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Flow Testing701.420.9740

Arti� cial Lift Systems

Corod Services701.774.1030

Wireline ServicesOpen HoleCased Hole

Pipe Recovery Services701.774.3045

www.weatherford.comXNLV83449


As the popular saying goes, “crime never sleeps.” Nowa-days neither does law enforce-ment.

Around the region, law enforcement agencies struggle to keep pace with the growing population that brings more crime that most communities in this vast rural area aren’t used to.

Agencies across the board report employment issues, equipment that needs updating and crowding jails. The Herald spoke to sheriffs from neigh-boring counties to Richland County to see how they’re hold-ing up.

increased crimeIf any law enforcement agen-

cy should not be surprised by the number and type of crime that’s become prevalent, it’s Roosevelt County. Historically, the west end of the county has had high crime rates because of the Fort Peck Indian Reser-

vation, but with oil activity in North Dakota, more crime is spilling onto the already crime-rampant reservation.

Roosevelt County Sheriff Freedom Crawford told the Herald narcotics crimes have risen dramatically, in particu-lar, spilling over to the reserva-tion, along with calls for as-sistance, emergency response and traffic violations. Spikes in crime rates are “definitely noticeable.”

In 1999, while working as a deputy, Crawford and his fellow officers transported perhaps one or two people to the Roosevelt County Justice Court once a week and one or two people to the district court every other week. Now it’s more people more times a week with six to eight to district court to be arraigned for felony charges.

Deputies respond to what any other agency would: assaults, domestic cases, traffic acci-dents on busy U.S. Highway 2, the usual bar fights, drunken drivers, as well as calls to

rescue stranded motorists and natural disasters (like flash floods and washed out road-ways). Wolf Point residents saw two robberies in March alone.

While the west end of the county has the reservation, the east end, with historically qui-et neighborhoods, has begun to see increased crime in the towns of Culbertson, Froid and Bainville, where man camps run aplenty and rail develop-ment is growing.

“It’s just, as far as responding over there, I can’t get anyone to live over there,” he said. Why? Well, it’s the same, tired story; there’s no place to stay, and if there is, rent is high, along with the cost of living. It’s about an 80-mile stretch across the county, so deputies living in the county seat of Wolf Point have an hour’s drive to Bain-ville to respond to a call. The sheriff ’s office is the only law enforcement agency on the east side; there’s no back up, except for the rotating door of high-way patrol troopers.

Since he became sheriff in 2006, the department’s doubled in size, from seven to 13, only because it applied for grants, passed mill levies and asked

commissioners for more money from the general fund.

On top of the response calls, the investigations, acting

regional law enforcement reflects county’s struggles

LouISA BARBER | SIDNEY HERALD

Roosevelt County Sheriff Freedom Crawford says crime has increased in the county, especially on the eastern end.

see crime, pAgE 17


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Bakken Formation Flow-Back Specialists

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Guiding Principles

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• Rail Project - Co-Developer of Mondak Transload Project www.MonDakCorner.com

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the investigations, acting as witnesses in court, there’s the reports. Deputies are averaging two hours of overtime each day. The activity is taking a toll on county deputies.

“Right now, we could defi-nitely use at least three or four more guys,” Crawford said.

“ArchAic” jAilRoosevelt County jail isn’t

so full that it’s “busting at the seams.” Rather, “our jail is so old and archaic they need a modern facility for some of these guys that we bring in,” Crawford said, who admits to being envious of Richland and Valley counties’ jails.

While the Richland County Law & Justice Center is a state-of-art-facility with automatic, security code locks, multiple cameras and recording devices, correctional officers in Wolf Point carry keys as they walk the floor with the inmates, which includes two murder suspects.

“That is our biggest liabil-

ity for Roosevelt County,” the sheriff said, who argues that litigation would be ten-fold compared to what it would cost to build a brand new facility.

Roosevelt County commis-sioners are aware of the condi-tions. Together, the two entities applied for a grant to conduct an assessment on what it would take to build a new jail. The county approved a measure to start a capital improvement fund so that excess funds from the sheriff ’s office can be used to pay for the facility. Roughly $120,000 has been saved in a year’s time.

At the same time, Roosevelt County residents last year ap-proved a mill levy to help law enforcement operate, which increased the mills from 4.25 to 7. “To me, that says, ‘Yes Sheriff, we understand that you do need this money,’ ” Crawford said. With it, the department’s been able to hire a new deputy, purchase a new vehicle and pay for a house so a deputy can live on the east end. In all, Roos-evelt County purchased three

homes in Sidney and near Bainville to house deputies and a county road crew employee.

StAying AfloAtDawson County Sheriff Craig

Anderson runs two jail opera-tions: the county jail and state correctional facility. On the jail side, there are 32 beds. In early April, 24 of those were filled. However, “several times” in the last 12-16 months, the facility’s exceeded capacity to as many as 40-42 inmates.

So authorities problem solve. “We have what are called portable bunks that look like toboggans. They pass the cor-rectional standards. We just put them on the floor on bunk beds,” Anderson said.

Like Richland, Dawson Coun-ty law enforcement struggles to house prisoners, trading with nearby facilities when there’s room, “and if somebody’s full, you go some place else.”

Anderson cites an increase in the number of calls his deputies have been respond-ing to, from domestic violence

to alcohol and drug, to traffic incidents on Highway 16. And it’s become even tougher to retain employees when the allure of a lucrative oil field wage is mounting. Sixty em-ployees work for the Dawson County Sheriff ’s Office, though most are correctional officers running the jails. Hourly wages start at $13.34. “That’s really tough to compete with oil field wages,” he said. “We work real hard to recruit and retain em-ployees.” The agency was down two officers a few weeks ago.

Since the Montana Highway Patrol added several troopers to its force in eastern Montana over the last year, Anderson, who maintains “we’re holding our own,” said his deputies’ case loads have eased, if only by a little. “That’s certainly helped a lot,” he said.

trAnSient populAtionA few hours northwest,

Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier oversees a year-old jail facility in Glasgow that houses prisoners from Valley, Daniels,

Sheridan, Phillips, McCone and Garfield counties, as well as those from Fort Belnap, the Fort Peck Tribes and Roosevelt County when their jail is full. Most recently, Valley County contracted with Custer County, which had closed its doors fol-lowing ACLU allegations of its conditions. It receives priority.

“We’re a 30-bed jail. We run 16-24 most of the time,” Meier said.

While there’s more truck and train traffic that rolls through Glasgow along the Hi-Line, Meier sees more drug traffic. Occasionally, there’s the high profile cases, like last year’s in-cident of a hitchhiker who shot himself while writing a book on the kindness of America. It made national headlines. Two years ago, deputies conducted a massive drug arrest where 17 people stayed in jail.

“As far as the real impact that they’re having in Willis-ton, into Roosevelt and Sidney, we’re just on the edge of that,” he said. Hiring and retaining

crime: Law enforcement struggles to house prisoners in eastern Montanafrom pAge 15

See lAw, pAgE 18


Just North of Williston, Located behind OK Fuel Stop314 42nd St. West, Williston 701-572-2393

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dispatch and detention center employ-ees remain difficult as it’s always been, though in the last few months, it seems to be getting worse.

On the whole, Valley County depu-ties are “dealing with the transient end more than the problems they’re facing in the oil patch,” Meier said, referring to people who aren’t “compe-tent” enough to work in the oil fields, and can’t find housing even to work at service-end businesses. A drifter may purchase a cheap vehicle and leave it on the side of a road abandoned, for in-stance. “Most of the oil field people are just fine,” Meier said. “Three percent of the population are criminals, but a lot of the people are just there to work.”

ProactiveRoosevelt County Sheriff Freedom

Crawford and other law enforcement officers aren’t as shocked by the rise in serious crime rates as their surround-ing counties.

“We already know what has always been occurring on the reservation,” he told the Herald. Now, moving forward, it’s about training officers well and maintaining control, maintaining a proactive attitude.

Crawford said he’s always wanted his

department to be active in meeting the public, conducting frequent security checks, and collecting intel on where new folks are moving to, but since the economic activity got “so big so fast,” law enforcement there, like elsewhere, have become reactive.

With additional officers, Crawford insists his agency would be better equipped to be prepared.

“It’s just the beginning for us. I can’t envision it ending because we’re only drilling on a third of the county,” he said, warning that if drilling was to occur on the reservation, Roosevelt County could be much busier. “As far as law enforcement, if that was to happen, we’ll pull through like we always have. We’ll provide as much public safety as we can….so, we’ll just see how it goes.”

Law: Officers aren’t surprised by increasefrom Page 17 ‘three percent of the population

are criminals, but a lot of the

people are just there to work.’

glen meier Valley County sheriff

lOuiSa BarBer | Sidney Herald

Roosevelt County Sheriff Freedom Crawford can’t picture the oil industry disappearing.


CommunicationsEquipment Rental

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Dan Cayko Cell: 480-5665 Home: 742-3630Marty Shaide 489-1441

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• Window tinting

Fiscal Year 2012-2013 Oil & Gas Payment (SB 329)

School NamePreliminary Budget Figures

Preliminary Figures 130%

1st thru 3rd quarter AMOUNT DISTRIBUTED

1st thru 3rd quarter AMOUNT OVER

Sidney Elementary $5,330,601.54 $6,929,782 $1,204,759.62 $0.00Savage Elementary $509,735.40 $662,656.02 $46,334.16 $0.00Brorson Elementary $78,067.35 $101,487.56 $101,487.56 $517,701.55Fairview Elementary $1,183,957.65 $1,539,144.95 $1,081,952.00 $0.00Rau Elementary $438,844.07 $570,497.29 $513,391.43 $0.00Lambert Elementary $509,590.03 $662,467.04 $662,467.04 $1,727,296.99Sidney High School $3,000,062.21 $3,900,080.87 $2,946,510.89 $0.00Savage High School $508,024.85 $660,432.31 $660,432.31 $224,705.18Fairview High School $1,064,322.85 $1,383,619.71 $876,831.30 $0.00Lambert High School $539,838.17 $701,789.62 $701,789.62 $1,687,974.13Richland County Schools Total $8,795,955.93 $4,157,677.85

Culbertson Elementary $1,208,762.17 $1,571,390.82 $595,428.10 $0.00Richey Elementary $409,388.56 $532,205.13 $299,870.65 $0.00Baker K-12 Schools $3,281,326.92 $4,265,725.00 $4,265,725.00 $240,793.88Plevna K-12 Schools $913,120.62 $1,187,056.81 $1,052,215.93 $0.00Westby K-12 Schools $843,575.38 $1,096,647.99 $1,000,742.07 $0.00Bainville K-12 Schools $1,314,706.22 $1,709,118.09 $1,652,048.72 $0.00Area Schools Total $6,213,239.68 $240,793.88

Amount to area schools $15,009,195.61Total to be returned to the state $4,398,471.73

Cell 406-480-0126 • Fax 406-488-6107

ANYTIME....ANYWHERE

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2320 South Central Ave. Sidney, MT

By Steve DaineSU.S. repreSentative

Earlier this month, I had the oppor-tunity to spend a day in Sidney. From standing near the base of a recently constructed oil rig to having candid conversations with local business own-ers who have seen their operations grow and change substantially to meet the demands of the oil field, it’s clear that recent growth in Bakken energy produc-tion has had a tremendous impact on our eastern Montana communities.

Production in the Bakken has ac-counted for thousands of new jobs and injected millions of dollars into eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Recent reports show that Bakken oil production currently accounts for 11 percent of total U.S. oil production and represents 40 percent of increased oil production nationwide.

One of the most exciting things that production in the Bakken has enabled is allowing more young Montanans to put their training and education to work here at home. For so long, Montana’s

schools have trained students that went off to other states or other countries to develop resources and new technol-ogy. Now, we have the opportunity to put those ideas and those Montanans to work developing Montana’s resources and growing our state’s energy produc-tion. It’s exciting to see students from eastern Montana returning home and putting their training and education to use in our state’s energy sector.

But as most eastern Montanans have shared with me, this growth has not come without its challenges. One of the major barriers facing our state is our infrastructure. We need to encourage investment in energy infrastructure to transport our resources, as well as the infrastructure necessary to sustain the unprecedented economic growth we have experienced. This includes roads and water and sewer, as well as strength-ening our schools and health care facili-ties.

This is one of the many reasons why building the Keystone XL pipeline is critical. President Obama has taken four and half years to make a decision on this job-creating project. It’s time to act. This project means millions of dollars injected into the economy and hundreds of good-paying jobs created for Montanans. It also means coming one

step closer to North American energy independence. The Keystone XL would be able to move up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day. That’s about half the amount that the U.S. presently imports from the Middle East. And of the oil moved each day to U.S. refineries, 100,000 barrels will come from our own Bakken formation.

That’s why in March, I joined a bipartisan group of House members in introducing legislation to expedi-tiously move forward the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline by taking the approval out of President Obama’s hands. The Northern Route Approval Act, which I co-sponsored alongside Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., removes the need for a presidential permit for the northern por-tion of the Keystone XL pipeline, which is planned to run from the Canadian border to Steele City, Neb. This legisla-tion will make it possible for the pipeline to be constructed in its entirety.

Montana is setting an example of how domestic energy development can be done in a responsible manner to reduce our dependence on foreign energy while sustaining our resources for generations to come. And through the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and contin-ued exploration and development of the Bakken, I am confident that Montana will continue to lead the way.

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Tappin’ the Bakken 22 SUnday, april 28, 2013 Sidney Herald

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The first ever Eastern Montana Energy Expo is taking shape at Dawson Community College, and the public is encouraged to attend.

“We’ve been really lucky,” says Daw-son County Economic Development executive director Amy Deines. “We’ve had great responses.”

Well over 100 exhibitors, from as far away as Delaware and Louisiana, have said they will attend the two-day event, May 15-16, which is geared toward net-working and showcasing employment opportunities, as well as presenting informational sessions featuring vari-ous speakers.

The expo runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 15 with an invitation only industry mixer at 4 p.m. During the day, the trade show takes place in the college gym-nasiums while the job fair is located within the halls so that rooms are used for private interviews. These events close at 4 p.m.

On May 16, the trade show and job fair are open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a showing of “FrackNation” sponsored by the Montana Petroleum Association

at 2 p.m. The documentary counters the recent “Promised Land” movie starring Matt Damon by speaking to both sides of the hydraulic fracturing controversy and revealing the truth about the effects on the environment.

A banquet at the Eastern Plains Event Center is scheduled at 5 p.m., followed by a half-hour social and keynote ad-dress by Gov. Steve Bullock at 6 p.m.

“We’ve been really happy with what we have so far. It’s definitely a diverse group of participants,” Deines said.

More than 30 businesses have signed up for the job fair that will include rep-resentative from the energy industry,

the service end and downtown business-es too. This fair is for anybody looking for a job or wanting to see what their employment options.

Since it’s also an informational event, a speaker every hour will cover every aspects of the oil and gas industry.

Among the speakers: Greg Schnacke of Denbury Resources Inc; Paul Hop-fauf of WBI Energy; David Patrick of EcoAsset; Dr. Carrine Blank, research assistant professor at the University of Montana in the Department of Geo-sciences; LaNette Simonton with the Montana Department of Justice Driver Licensing Bureau; John R. Klaman with the Small Business Administration; Jim Cusimano, certified financial planner; and Bob van der Valk, an independent consultant in the petroleum.

Deines said the first day is geared toward networking within the industry. Geologists, engineers, senior oil compa-ny executives, land men, service compa-nies, sales and marketing, software and data vendors, oil field safety equipment providers and oil field housing provid-ers are included among them.

Anyone who is interested in a booth for the job fair should register for $50 that includes the Wednesday night

reception and Thursday night banquet. Very few spaces remain. Register and pay online or call. An exhibitor space is $450, which also includes Wednesday and Thursday evening events.

Because the event is geared for eastern Montana, Deines hopes area

residents will attend and show support. After all, even though Billings may call itself the energy hub of Montana, locals know where the real action is taking place.

“It’s a good time to show what’s hap-pening here,” she said. “We’re in the middle of it.”

Visit www.emtenergyexpo.com to learn more.

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The interest was there, then it wasn’t. Leases were acquired, it looked as though the city of Sidney would have its own oil well, but then plans fizzled. It’d been like that for years.

“There’s been lots of explora-tion through the years close to Sidney,” says David Knapp, manager of Knapp Oil Corp., a petroleum services firm. Local industry insiders have always believed that oil wells near Sid-ney are profitable. So if there was so much interest, why did plans fall through?

In the early 1980s, a well would’ve been vertical, prob-ably targeting the Red River Formation, but with the per-fected horizontal drilling tech-nique, oil companies can target the lucrative Bakken Forma-tion. “What drove this well to be drilled is the Bakken and the Three Forks formations

and the fracking technology,” Knapp said.

After three decades of hot-and-cold plans, the city of Sidney finally got its oil well.

The Dige weLLOn Dec. 13, 2012, the Montana

Board of Oil and Gas Conserva-tion approved a docket submit-ted by XTO Energy for a 2,560-acre temporary spacing unit to drill a horizontal well – Dige 41X-29DXA – the culmination of several years worth of work. According to the docket, XTO originally planned two 1,280-acre units but because it “in-vested significant resources” in title work and lease bonuses, and to accommodate surface considerations around Sidney, as well as negotiate around the federally-owned irriga-tion canal, it changed course. In March, XTO began drilling down 10,000 feet at the drilling site off County Road 126, just north of Sidney city limits.

Towering above surround-

ing fields and structures, rig crews worked 24-7, finishing drilling on April 5. Hydraulic fracturing operations were to commence later in the month, followed by final completion. The entire length of the well is about 20,500 feet.

To some, the Dige well, or its moniker, “Sidney’s oil well,” is just another well. But for others, like city officials, it has the potential to be a black gold mine that could help mitigate some of the oil and gas impacts. Officials like Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser had conversations with oil industry representatives a few years ago about the potential for an oil well. “At that time I’d been five years asking the state for financial assistance, and three or four years asking the county for the same. We were looking for an option, any option at that time,” he said.

City officials last year esti-mated more than $50 million in impacts over the next few

years with little in the way of resources to pay for it.

Heading into the 2013 Mon-tana legislative session, there was plenty of enthusiasm that after more than a year of leg-islative and state department tours, meetings and collabora-tion, oil and gas country would essentially have no trouble getting financial assistance. Yet that hasn’t necessarily been the case.

FunDing BaTTLe“A month ago, I thought the

motel, man camp, RV parks bed tax was good, but now that it’s been tabled, I can’t tell you what’s coming out of [the session],” Smelser said at the beginning of April.

Several bills were tabled or missed deadlines. One of the best shots for impact funds is the governor’s proposal for a $15-million, one-time grant for northeast Montana communi-ties. That would be a certain amount of dollars for one year

for a set number of years for 71 cities and towns in oil and gas producing counties. “At this point in time, I hope there’ll be enough funding for all cities and towns in oil and gas pro-ducing counties,” Smelser said.

No matter what happens at the end of the legislative ses-sion, the city of Sidney has had to come to terms that its best chance for a long-term revenue source sits less than a mile from the city center.

An XTO spokesman could not provide hard figures for royalty payments to mineral owners, but Smelser estimates the city could stand to gain $16,000 a year on just one lateral. If the well proves commercially successful, it could prove to be four or five times as much with additional laterals. The city of Sidney itself has 40 acres of parks within the spacing. “If we can recognize some of those streets and alleys are ours,

oil well years in the making in sidney

see weLL, page 25

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streets and alleys are ours, then we can increase the acre-age,” Smelser said.

What he hopes for even more is a profitable well that would produce four or five laterals for some $100,000 a year. Even if the oil well produces little revenue for the city of Sidney, there may be another way to boost income. In what could be considered controversial, the mayor is asking landown-ers to donate their portions of the royalties to the city of Sidney to help pay wages and equipment. He says there have already been a couple residents who sent theirs in. Smelser, himself, pledges to donate his checks.

“I still plan on donating my three and a half lots that I own to the city of Sidney and spe-cifically to infrastructure and employee wages,” he said.

Mineral owners within the spacing unit, stretching along the entire 14th Street S.W./S.E. north to County Road 126 stand to gain at least some money. That’s 26 pages of lease own-

ers (according to the docket), which isn’t expected to pay out much. “You’re going to have a wide range, tiny checks for sure, but there’ll also be some larger ones,” Knapp said. Smelser hopes that if enough

people send in a check, it’ll cre-ate “some serious revenue.”

There was no word, as of print deadline, when payments would be delivered to residents, and XTO reps say they don’t know the quality of the Dige well. “We’re encouraged by the drilling results,” spokesman Bill Holbrook said. “However, more technical work, including fracturing, is needed to fully assess the well.”

He added: “XTO’s proud to be part of the Sidney community and to make such an important contribution to the city’s econo-my. We also want to assure our neighbors that we work hard to conduct our business safely and in a way that demonstrates respect for the environment.”

What’s next?A few weeks before the

legislative session concluded, area leaders continued to moni-tor the Legislature. Sen. Matt Rosendale, R-Glendive, said the area could expect $55-60 million in funds to mitigate impacts over the next five years for the region; he was pushing for the

board of oil and gas to dis-tribute funds, rather than the Department of Commerce.

“It has been very produc-tive,” he said. “It has been very productive, and the atmosphere has been one of cooperation. I’m really pleased at the things we’ve been able to accomplish.”

DEQ Oil and Gas coordinator Steve Kilbreath, in response to an inquiry about what happens if there aren’t enough funds to

pay for Sidney’s new lagoon, said in early April he wasn’t considering it yet, since legisla-tion was still in the works. “I envision that there will be a last-minute blending of three funding bills into one that define the funding package,” he told the Herald. “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

[email protected]

Well: Mayor hopes other landowners donate portions of royalitiesfrom page 24

Investment $8,500,000Return on investment

Source: XTO Energy docket approved by Board of Oil and Gas

2.64 to 1

$89,20025-year operational cost $1,650,000

Net income $22,442,500

Oil severance taxGas severance tax

$19,860,480$400,000$5,50020%

$80/BBL$3/MCF

$26,560,000$2,378,300

Royalties and overridesAverage oil priceAverage gas price

Net sales

Dige Well StatsOriginal oil in placePrimary recoveryOperating cost


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As he stands on his property overlooking miles of grain and sugar beet fields, Neil Amond-son envisions something vastly different.

“See all that?” the developer says, tracing the outline of property from the corner of Interstate Avenue and Montana Highway 200, north toward Dore, N.D. “All that’s going to be completely different in a few years.”

The land stretching two miles starting at Highway 200 be-tween the North Dakota side of Interstate Avenue to North Da-kota Highway 58 will transform from unassuming meadows to an industrial and commercial complex capable of becoming the oil transportation hub for the Williston Basin.

“We plan to be a major ex-porter of crude for the western Bakken and could possibly be one of the largest exporters of crude for the Bakken,” Amond-

son said. He’s referring to a joint

venture between his company, Hunter Light of Williston, N.D., and Hempel Companies of Minnesota. The two entities form Northstar Transloading for which Amondson serves as vice president. The transload-ing site, soon to be known as MonDak Corner, encompasses a 400-acre site designated as a multi-commodity transload terminal, logistics center and truck stop capable of loading and unloading 1,100 rail cars at any given time. Exporting crude and natural gas liquid in addition to importing ag-gregates, diesel, agriculture products and equipment, food and cold storage, are some of its future capabilities.

Northstar is the latest in a slew of businesses that’ve altered the landscape between Fairview and Williston. Includ-ing Northstar, there’s a six-mile stretch of loading facilities that operate 24-7, on highway 58, moving Bakken crude out of

pipeline delivery systems and off trucks and onto railcars headed to refineries elsewhere.

Musket Corp. and Hiland Part-ners, along with Savage Bak-ken Petroleum near Trenton,

N.D., are among the companies that see opportunities for rail,

Mega Fairview transloading facility follows rail-building trend

louiSa BarBer | Sidney Herald

Neil Amondson, developer, plans to make 400-acre Northstar Transloading the major exporter of crude oil for the western Bakken.

see raiL, page 27

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rail, a small reflection of a larger movement.

DemanD for railJust a few years ago, the oil

and gas industry beat the war drum against railroads, as industry businesses insisted pipeline was the wave of the future. The argument was that shipping by rail was more expensive because of the cost, in addition to truck transpor-tation to deliver product. The war drum that was so loud seems to have faded as produc-ers find there’s one big draw-back to pipelines.

Experts estimate roughly 68 percent of Bakken crude is shipped using railroad tracks that extend across the state of North Dakota. The other 23 percent is exported by pipeline, 8 percent by Tesoro refinery and 1 percent by truck to Canadian pipelines. Since 2010, rail export volumes from North Dakota have grown from 20,000 barrels per day to almost 600,000 barrels a day as of Jan-uary 2013. Rail activity today

is eerily similar to the late 19th century when it played a key role in propelling the Indus-trial Revolution; it’s essentially serving the same function in the Williston Basin.

Figures provided by the North Dakota Pipeline Authori-ty back up claims that shipping using rail service is growing faster than pipeline ship-ping; 463,000 barrels a day for pipeline in 2012 versus rail’s 660,000. Yet each is expected to continue growing until they reach about the same rate in 2015 and pipeline takes a slight 200,000-barrel-a-day advantage the following year.

The question, then, becomes why? Why is rail development exploding? To answer that, one must focus on the broader spectrum. Consider this: North Dakota’s tremendous oil devel-opment in the Williston Basin is reinforced by frantic drilling. The state’s been increasing its oil production since 2010. The rig count there is estimated at 185. Domestic production is the highest it’s ever been, but there’s a ban on international

crude exports (though refined products can be exported). That crude’s got to go someplace.

So the pipelines are built and most of them head toward the Gulf of Mexico refineries. There’s no significant problem. Pipelines are one-directional, and often refineries in the gulf are full, so if the refineries are full, so are the pipelines. What do producers do then?

Justin Kringstad, pipeline au-thority director, says there are two scenarios to why rail has grown substantially over pipe-line. First, is the oil produc-tion is above current pipeline capacity.

“We currently don’t have enough pipeline capacity to move all the crude oil,” he

said. The other scenario – and perhaps greatest factor – is the market for crude oil. Higher prices are on the East and West Coasts, but there aren’t any pipelines heading in those di-rections. “The only way to get there is by rail,” he said.

As it turns out, however, rail is more than just a highway for crude transportation, it’s a “two-way street” with the capacity to affect the regions it travels through.

Helping His Home stateFor Amondson, the facility

is three years in the making, and part of a personal dream to improve conditions back in his home state, Washingon. The Centralia native is a former state legislator and has seen the toll environmental regula-tions have taken on natural resource development, result-ing in high unemployment. He’d been visiting the Bakken region looking for opportuni-ties when this project came up.

He tells the Herald: “I could do more for Washington from here than a lot of people can do

in Washington state.” It’s not such a surprising

comment, given the state of Washington’s economy and the potential to supply materials for the Bakken. The need for materials to sustain regional oil development is growing. If experts are correct, in that 50,000 oil wells still need to be drilled in North Dakota, the materials and manpower needed to accomplish it are at extraordinary figures. Per well, it takes 3 million gallons of water for fracking, eight miles of pipeline and several tons of gravel, to name a few. Supplies to support the industry must be imported, and a number of states are looking to take advantage.

Longtime Washington state Lt. Gov. Brad Owen – who also happens to be a friend of Amondson – visited North Dakota recently to attend a con-ference in Minot, hoping to get a glimpse of the opportunities his state could utilize.

“I think a lot of states are going to benefit from a lot of

rail: Shipping using rail service growing faster than pipeline shippingfrom page 26 ‘i think a lot of states are

going to benefit from a lot

of different ways.’

Brad owenState of Washington Lt. Gov.

see states, pAGE 31


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different ways,” Owen said. Since the conference, he’s been giving presentations and speeches around Washington, focusing on the state’s econom-ic development and internation-al relations, working to inform private business owners of the ways they can get involved.

Washington is a major port state. Its port facilities offer an entry way into the world mar-ket. Much of what comes from Asia goes through the Puget Sound marine arterials includ-ing building materials and hydraulic fracturing materials (like sand). These lines also have the ability to transport oil for processing at the Anacortes, Wash., Tesoro refinery and Cherry Point.

“There’s so much activity go-ing on in North Dakota that the potential is incredible as long as it is sustainable,” Owen said.

In early 2013, the Port of Tacoma in Washington state announced a lease deal with Targa Sound Terminal, a subsidiary of Houston-based Targa Resources. Targa,

whose Puget Sound operations provide petroleum products to the Pacific Northwest, signed a 25-year lease on 80 acres to expand its business. A Port of Tacoma spokeswoman told the Herald that Targa planned to take Bakken crude. In a press release, Targa said it aims to have the facility operational by May 2014; construction would create 100 jobs and final opera-tions would add 50 new jobs. Targa did not return an inquiry for comment. Bakken crude is expected to go to Washington refineries this fall.

The Washington state econo-my – from its lumber products, cement, power poles, and pipe to machinery and equipment – has a lot to gain from Bakken development. And although hundreds, if not thousands, of Washingtonians have already made the move eastward either as business owners or private employees to support their fam-ilies back home, it is virtually impossible to put a dollar figure on the economic impacts, but Owen estimates it could poten-tially be in the billions. “We are

a lumber producer, agriculture state, we’re an oil refinery state, we manufacture a lot of goods that could be used in North Dakota,” he said, rattling off examples of Washington busi-ness owners who are coming up with ideas to provide services, including housing units, for the Bakken.

What rail means hereBack at home, project leaders

want to begin moving dirt as soon as land is officially secure sometime in mid-May to early June. The plan is to begin ship-ping product before the end of the year and be fully operation-al in 2015. The entrepreneurial endeavor is three years in the making, and the eve of con-struction comes following the Yellowstone Township Board’s final approval on the condition that an overpass be constructed at 32nd Street N.W. so that resi-dents have a way to cross the de-velopment. Northstar must also make improvements on Inter-state Avenue to accommodate heavy truck traffic. The proper-ty’s been rezoned from agricul-

ture to industrial/commercial. Officials also await McKenzie County’s final approval.

MonDak Corner’s vast size could have a considerable impact on Richland County, even though the facility itself is in McKenzie County, N.D. An estimated 1,100 rail cars in operation, or seven unit trains, translates to 3,500 trucks with two drivers per truck. That’s 7,000 drivers.

“Everything adds to it, so there’s going to be a need for more housing, restaurants, more services, from laundry to whatever, to support that development,” Amondson, the developer, said.

In addition, Northstar is purchasing property on Mon-tana Highway 201 to assist the transloading site by building industrial parks and develop-ing housing to meet the needs for new jobs. More people also means needs for more busi-nesses in Fairview. Amondson’s convinced the town of about 1,100 will grow significantly. “There’s many facets beyond rail. Rail brings product, prod-

uct requires workers, workers require houses, houses require restaurants and everything else,” he said, warning that the town of Fairview will eventu-ally provide utility services to MonDak Corner.

Company officials plan to have their own water and sewer systems on site until the town grows out to meet them; then the company would assist in the extension, even though a month ago Fairview officials said they knew virtually nothing about the project, nor its impacts on the town and wondered wheth-er the project would actually happen.

Amondson’s grandiose vision of becoming the Bakken trans-portation hub is coming true. “We are a supporting transload facility because we are the most efficient means of getting products to market,” Amondson said. “We’re very excited to be able to provide a solution for creating jobs and transferring oil to other states. We’re provid-ing jobs and opportunities to build communities here and elsewhere. That’s exciting.”

states: Washington Lt. Gov. Owen calls Bakken potential ‘incredible’from page 27


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Just before it launched the first Safe-tyFestMT workshop in Sidney April 16-18, the Montana State Fund set in mo-tion a new media campaign dedicated to safety in the Bakken region.

On April 15, you may have noticed newspaper ads, radio spots or posters with quirky slogans: “The most danger-ous job here is the one you do without thinking” or “Start the day with a focus on staying focused.” The Montana State Fund, the largest workers comp insurer in the state, hopes the catchy phrases will remind workers to be conscious of their work environments and take steps to reduce on-the-job injuries.

“We just felt this is something we wanted to be proactive about with safe-ty, and with so many people coming and going, we want to promote safety and promote it in a way that is telling people to watch out for those they work with,” says Mary Boyle, communications spe-cialist with the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. The underlying message is work hard but be safe.

Exhaustion from long hours at work, for several consecutive days takes its toll on employees, so the Montana State

Fund is also taking the time to include tips for worker safety, i.e., eating well, taking regular breaks, sleeping well, reduce alcohol drinking on breaks from work, slowing down to focus and getting regular exercise. From July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2012, there were 828 injuries and four fatalities in the petro-leum and supporting industries in the Montana State Fund book of business.

Boyle said the insurance agency is seeing accidents but not to the point where it’s become worrisome. It’s about being proactive to promote safety.

The Montana State Fund has created a

website where safety tips, resources and information on hiring practices can be found. Employers and employees must continue to think about safety, paying attention when they’re on the job.

The safety campaign is in northeast Montana only, running through mid-June; it’s the culmination of discus-sions over the last seven months to get the message out. To be sure, the message isn’t only geared toward oil industry-related workers. Because of the ongoing employee shortage, work-ers in the downtown business sector and retail industry are underemployed,

overworked and exhausted. Accidents are waiting to happen.

The following are accident rates per county in eastern Montana for fiscal year 2012 provided by the Montana De-partment of Labor and Industry to the Herald: Daniels had five accidents per 561 employees; Dawson 6.7 accidents per 3,533 employees; Fallon 3.0 accidents per 1,590 employees; Garfield 3.4 accidents per 267 employees; McCone 4.4 acci-dents per 541 employees; Prairie 14.2 ac-cidents per 253 employees; Richland 4.7 accidents per 6,027 employees; Roosevelt 4.9 accidents per 3,508 employees; Sheri-dan 3.9 accidents per 1,296 employees; Valley 5.4 accidents per 2,660 employ-ees; and Wibaux 3.5 accidents per 311 employees. The map will be published in July 2013.

The campaign is part of a larger mission to reduce insurance claims, thereby cutting costs. When accidents are down, premiums are down. The insurance agency has found a positive trend in the oil and gas industry. On average, these employees are off work an average of 13 weeks compared to 31 weeks for all injured employees in all industries across the state.

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By Max Baucusu.S. Senator

With a view of the heavens so com-plete, we’re proud to be known as Big Sky Country. Yet, it is also the teeming treasures below our feet that are putting Montana on the map.

We are so lucky to be Montanans. We are outdoors people. We want to hunt, fish, hike, go camping and enjoy the beauty of our home. We’re here for our majestic views, clean rivers and the adventure of our outdoors. We are truly the Treasure State. We’re so lucky to have our natural resources that we must take advantage of. We’ve been blessed with oil, timber, gold, copper, coal, gas and wind. When it comes to energy: Montana has it all.

Working TogeTher for MonTana JoBs

And we’ve got to work together to make sure Montana can use every tool available to maximize our energy potential. Eastern Montana is sitting on potentially billions of barrels of oil re-serves. It has brought good-paying jobs and large tax revenues to Sidney, Rich-land County, and the state of Montana.

Every barrel of oil we pump from the earth beneath Montana is oil we are not

buying from overseas. Instead, we are using those dollars right here in our own state in our own communities.

There are an estimated 18,000 jobs ready for the taking in the Bakken. Montanans should get those jobs. And, they shouldn’t have to leave our state to

get the training they need. I worked together with Montana’s

university system and community col-leges to launch new job training to get those jobs here. We worked with energy

companies operating in Montana to hire Montanans first. We’re making progress because we’re working together.

The oil boom has been a bright spot for our economy, providing good-pay-ing jobs we need. The boom has also strained local infrastructure in commu-nities across eastern Montana. That’s why I directly urged the president to provide every appropriate federal resource to the Bakken. You can bet, I’m going to keep up the pressure.

After visiting the area last spring, I heard from many residents and busi-ness owners concerned that inadequate cell and Internet access were hamper-ing growth and development related to the oil boom. I challenged Verizon to do more, and earlier this month I was proud to announce Verizon 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell sites are now operational in Sidney and in Fairview. This brings much needed high-speed Internet and cell phone service to the Bakken region to support jobs.

finding soluTions ThaT Work for MonTana

We must reduce our dependency on foreign oil – not only to keep Montan-ans’ hard earned dollars right here in Montana – but to keep our country safe.

For too long we have sent dollars to countries that do not share our values or respect our way of life.

Our teeming oil fields in Montana are helping us meet this challenge. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got all hands on deck to absorb the infrastructure strain of the boom and also ensure that our bright energy portfolio continues to build a prosperous future for our kids and grandkids.

Max Baucus is Montana’s senior U.S. senator. He can be reached at 800-332-6106.

Baucus: Montana treasures fuel brighter future

‘There are an estimated 18,000

jobs ready for the taking in the

Bakken. Montanans should get

those jobs. and, they shouldn’t

have to leave our state to get the

training they need.’

Max Baucusu.S. senator

‘That’s why i directly urged

the president to provide every

appropriate federal resource to

the Bakken. you can bet, i’m going

to keep up the pressure.’

Max Baucusu.S. senator

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By Jon TesTeru.S. SENAtoR

Eastern Montana has one of the fastest growing economies in the nation. That’s thanks to the hard work of our oil workers – as well as everyone who helps to develop our rich natural resources.

The work you do every day brings us closer to our goal of cutting our na-tion’s oil imports in half by the end of the decade.

But you’re also provid-ing an economic boost to rural Montana. Jobs are coming to the Big Sky State.

Folks are being hired by the day to work on rigs and to provide transporta-

tion. There are retail and construction businesses opening to support our oil industry. These jobs also pay more than jobs in other parts of the country, and wages keep going up.

Places like Glendive and Sidney are booming with new business thanks to Bakken oil. But in some places, that means local infrastructure and housing authorities are struggling to keep up with the rapid growth.

I recently introduced bipartisan legislation that would reduce the regu-latory burden on small public housing agencies – especially in eastern Mon-tana – so they can more easily provide affordable

housing. Eastern Montana is

moving forward thanks to our oil workers. The en-ergy you produce increas-es our energy security, strengthens our economy, and creates jobs.

By providing more of our own energy, we no longer have to rely on countries that don’t like us to power our busi-nesses, our schools, our hospitals and our homes.

That’s a good thing – and it stems from your hard work. I’ll keep looking for more ways to responsibly support Mon-tana’s oil industry so you can continue your good work creating jobs and improving our economy.

tester: Closer to energy independence



Since Josh and Wendy Johnson moved to their home on Montana Highway 201 a decade ago, they’ve had a front-row seat to witness a growing economy in Richland County.

Their house shakes at times because of the sheer number of semi-trucks that pass by. “We used to be able to sleep with the windows open during the sum-mer, but now it’s way too noisy,” Josh said. “It’s way too loud.”

Residents like Josh have had to adjust to the changing dynamic. Johnson calls it a lifestyle change. “You got to get used to the noise,” he said. Traffic was a lot lower back when the Johnsons moved into their home, located 100 feet or so from the road, with fewer trucks to be sure. In 2009, the state’s traffic counts showed an average of 820 vehicles travelled daily on the highway (at least at the reference marker next to County Road 350; traffic doubled to 1,630 in 2010 but dropped to 1,220 the following year. Last year’s statistics aren’t yet avail-able.

Johnson estimates 300-600 semis pass his house a day, depending on the day.

He’s witnessed between six and 10 ac-cidents in just the mile stretch in front of his home in the last five years. The number of vehicles traveling on the highway coincide with economic activ-ity.

Just recently, the Montana Depart-ment of Transportation designated the highway a primary arterial between Fairview and Highway 16. The new identity, directly because of the in-crease in traffic, qualifies the highway to receive more funding for attention and maintenance.

The noise level means the family takes action to reduce the sound. Win-dows remain closed, the children are more cautious about traffic than their parents were growing up, and they turn on white noise to drown out jake brakes. “It’s more of a nuisance that way, but it’s not a bad thing,” Johnson said.

Just down the road lives Ryan Kopp, a Fairview native who remembers roller blading and bike riding on the highway growing up. No one was on the highway

at the time, and if there was, he knew who they were; they’d slow down to have a chat.

Today, not so much. One truck every minute or so these days passes by his house on the narrow roadway. In the last few years, traffic noise has become more frequent. Kopp’s house is 100 feet away from the road, which gives him access to accidents. This year, he watched a tanker roll over during a winter storm not too far from his house. Emergency responders used his house to work. “It was an exciting night,” he said, recalling a bull that was hit during the accident. “There was a whole rodeo going on.”

Although he’s gotten used to the noise, Kopp worries about the road itself, which he believes is not built to handle the amount of trucks that use the road. “When it’s busy, there’s one every minute for probably 10 hours a day,” he says.

Other area residents tell the Herald they are sick of the growing truck traf-fic. One resident on Highway 200 west of Sidney said they can no longer sleep through the night merely because of the truck traffic, and they wonder if drivers purposely use their jake brakes just to wake residents.

Almost across the board, traffic counts have soared over the last few years. Through Sidney, vehicles num-bered more than 13,000 daily on Central Avenue and more than 10,500 on Holly Street in 2011, which is up more than 3,000 vehicles from the previous year. The highest point on Highway 200, east of Lambert, put the average daily traffic count at 1,160. Meanwhile, traffic on Highway 16 through Savage was at 2,970. Fairview’s highest traffic count was 7,670 vehicles a day in 2011.

In comparison, Glendive’s highest traffic count, in town, was 10,440 in 2011, while Interstate 94 hovered around 4,500 to 5,100.

Changing timesJust north of Sidney on Highway 200,

Casey and Gina Thiel live in a house they built 25 years ago, and they remem-ber the time well. “It was really slow around here in the second half of the ‘80s. The economy was not good in Mon-tana,” Casey said. Traffic, of course, was much slower then, and while they’d always been concerned about drivers on the highway, today “it’s even crazier.”

“You never had to wait to get on the highway prior to four years ago,” Casey said. Waiting two or three minutes to get out of the driveway may not sound like a lot, he said, but it is when it takes a mere few minutes to get to anywhere in town.

The couple watched as traffic began to pick up 10 years ago and then accelerat-

ed more within the last few years. Near their home, the state recorded average daily traffic of 3,970 in 2009, 3,990 in 2010 and 6,870 in 2011.

The two have had hitchhikers ask them for assistance, people looking for gas money in the early morning hours, even intoxicated people asking for rides to Williston, N.D. “Living on the high-way makes you a little more concerned, I think,” Gina said.

Casey, a Sidney native, and Gina, from Glendive, have been around long enough to see changes happen. More vehicles means more people in town. Whereas, just a few years ago, they would’ve recognized 85-90 percent of the names and faces, not so these days. “You don’t know anybody,” Gina said, quickly adding, “I like it though.”

And while they’ve met several “good people,” they’ve also run into their fair share of residents whose intentions are perhaps questionable. Casey, who co-owns the family business, Thiel Bros. Roofing, with brother Dexter Thiel, says his business has been affected by people who aren’t necessarily “cream of the crop” workers. “You get a lot of people that can’t pass drug tests or have no de-sire to,” he said, “a lot of people with no driver’s licenses.” But desperate times calls for desperate measures. Some busi-nesses are forced to lower standards so they can get help to meet high customer

demands. Casey and Gina say the hardest issue

they’ve had to adjust to is the level of criminal activity. Their business has fallen victim to multiple thefts.

“It makes you feel like you no longer want to reach out to accommodate people,” he said. “Kinda makes you withdraw a little bit.”

The couple has spent tens of thou-sands of dollars on security systems, something they never thought they’d have to do just 10 years ago.

BLessing or Curse?Crimes may be up, traffic too, and

with it comes lots of garbage strewn along the roads, but at least develop-ment in the county hasn’t been “ram-pant” like it has been east of the state line, the Thiels say. Gina’s glad to see “some changes” and that the city of Sidney has “vitality” (though she’d like to see a nice fitness center). But they want to see the infrastructure grow. Casey believes the city has “lagged just too slowly,” and it’s hurting hometown businesses who need places for their employees (which they desperately need) to live.

In the end, though, he reconciles the downfalls with the local economy and the broader picture. “I say take the good with the bad. Fifty-fifty,” Casey said. “It’s all good. I’m all for progress.”

residents see highway traffic as economy thermometer


Casey and Gina Thiel have lived near Highway 200 for the past 25 years.‘When it’s busy, there’s one every

minute for probably 10

hours a day.’

ryan Kopprichland County native


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In the Williston Basin, there are countless hardship stories of families who relocate to the region during these times of financial crisis.

The story of the Barnett fam-ily’s move to Sidney isn’t one of them. It does, however, offer an “outsider’s” perspective into the local community and reaffirms the fact that there are newcomers who seek out op-portunities to get involved, to contribute and help make their new home better than they found it.

The moveTwo years ago, Lew Barnett

was recruited by ConocoPhil-lips as a health, safety and environment specialist. “We saw it as an opportunity,” he said. “We want to have this as a place where we’ll put down roots.” So in March 2011, he arrived in Sidney and imme-diately began looking for a lot to buy and to build a home. Every evening after work, he

scoured the county, looking for anything that was available; lots were few and he’d return to his living quarters behind the ConocoPhillips office. Then, on a Sunday, he saw a lot-for-sale sign and called a local realtor, who informed him that while it had sold, the land next-door was for sale. A few hours later, he was signing the papers. It took just a month and a half.

He secured a contractor, and by August 2011, Lew’s wife, Troy, – who feverishly called real estate agents from their Riverton, Wyo., home – and their daughter, Morgan, were moving into the new house. The family is no stranger to change, but this was more than a change. “I wanted to be with my husband,” Troy said, “and I figured if it worked that I could contribute in some way, then I would do it.”

seTTLing in Not long after the move,

Morgan, then a seventh-grader, settled into her classes at Sidney Middle School. Just a few months later, she told the

Herald that she’d met several classmates a day who became her friends. She began partici-pating in student council, cross country, summer swimming and various clubs on campus. In December 2012, she received STAND’s Youth Community Champion award. A leader amongst her peers, Morgan is often elected to escort new students on tours around the school as part of the middle school’s new welcome policy.

“I have a lot of friends there. People here are welcoming, and all my teachers are really nice,” Morgan said. “It’s kind of nice that we have more personal relationships.”

While Morgan’s at school, Troy’s on a mission.

CanCer awarenessTroy’s often in the public eye.

Her pictures are in the newspa-per promoting the annual Bra Auction and Tough Enough to Wear Pink event. As the Com-prehensive Cancer Control Pro-gram coordinator, Troy seeks to educate the public about ways to prevent cancer, provide

screening services through the cancer screening program and lead the Cancer Coalition.

What the public may not be fully aware is that Troy herself has cancer. In that way, Troy says she feels that much stron-ger about her job.

“The thing that really hangs

people up is they don’t have insurance. What I’d do with-out him,” she said, turning to her husband, “I can’t image.” Wiping tears, she lamented that so many area residents live without health insurance. “You

Barnett family wants to ‘put down roots’ in richland County

LouISA BARBER | SIDNEY HERALD

Troy, Morgan and Lew Barnett built a home in Sidney and have been connecting with the locals since August 2011.

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cannot fight that disease without it.” So she works to raise money through

donations to provide screening ser-vices, mammograms, clinical breast exams, pap tests, pelvic exams and colonoscopies, as well as follow-up diag-nostic screenings.

She, and the cancer coalition, helped establish an endowment fund so that anyone who is diagnosed in Richland County or the surrounding has money to pay for the treatment.

Troy, who works part time as she tires easily, sought employment at the Richland County Health Department. “Really, I picked them. It was just convincing them to work,” she said, laughing, calling her supervisor, Judy LaPan, “brave” for hiring her.

Yet LaPan sees it different. “I don’t think that I was brave. I think that I saw the skills we needed in Troy,” she tells the Herald. “I like the idea of hav-ing new people in the community with new ideas. It keeps us on our toes.”

Ever a forward-thinker, LaPan em-braced the newcomer and the changes that came with her. Since Troy took over the bra auction, which raises mon-ey for her programs, donations doubled – from $30,000 to more than $65,000.

But while she’s slow to take credit, Lew is quick to shed light on the oil industry’s contributions to the local communities.

“People from the energy industry learned about this auction, and they came. Energy has some money that they can extend to different charitable organizations…Here’s an example of where energy really stepped forward,” he said.

OutcastThey call Richland County residents

“amazing,” “brave” and “wonderful.” Natives and old-timers who embrace the change in their communities, and newcomers who take a chance to start a new life, earn a living.

They’ve settled into their new city, attend services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but they admit, sometimes they feel a tinge of being an outcast, when all they really want is to be connected to locals.

Troy recalls one instance in January 2012 when her family joined search parties to look for slain teacher Sherry Arnold. She was sitting in the Sidney High School gymnasium when she overheard comments blaming new residents for the situation. “Here I was,

ready to look for her. My whole family was,” she said. “It was really hard to sit there and hope they didn’t notice I was new,” though she conceded, “you have to respect it because this is somebody that they loved.”

Lew quickly added: “We would’ve felt the same.”

GOOd with badThe energy industry brings with

it positive and negative impacts. Not everyone accepts the changing land-scape or the atmosphere they were once familiar with.

Some people move to the area solely to make money. Others, like the Bar-netts, attempt to contribute in some way to their new surroundings. It’s not always easy.

“It’d just be nice if everybody would play fair, and if everybody respected what is here. Don’t take away from this, but if we can add to the good things that are here, then we would be more welcome,” Lew said. “I just wish our industry would embrace that, but we bring some real rough characters here.”

[email protected]

Family: Barnetts make their mark in county through work, schoolFrOm paGe 37

As of mid-April, President Barack Obama had yet to make a decision on whether to grant a Presidential Permit for TransCanada’s 1,179-mile Keystone XL pipeline, though that’s not stopping national legislators from calling for support.

In February, Montana Sens. Max Bau-cus and Jon Tester joined North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven to lead a bipartisan group of 20 senators in pressing Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to approve the pipeline.

With an anticipated decision on the Presidential Permit in 2013, the Key-stone XL pipeline has a projected in-service date of 2015.

The pipeline will have capacity to transport 830,000 barrels of oil per day to Gulf Coast and Midwest refineries, reducing American dependence on oil from Venezuela and the Middle East by up to 40 percent.

While Gov. Steve Bullock issued a letter of support, U.S. senators and rep-resentatives have sounded off. “America can’t afford to wait any longer for these jobs to finally come. We’ve waited more than four years. The time has come now,” Baucus said.

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You don’t hear many hair-raising legislative committee hearings. They usually cause quite a snore. But on one oc-casion during this session, one person’s testimony during an oil tax incentive hearing, caused an entirely new discus-sion of its own.

It was just one statement: “There is no oil boom in eastern Montana.” The gentle-man who said it was longtime Sidney resident Bob Gilbert, who was representing the Montana Association of Oil, Gas and Coal Counties and the city of Glendive. “Quite frankly, it’s a lie.” The claim was made during a March 5 Senate Taxa-tion Committee hearing on Senate Bill 295, which sought to repeal the tax incentive, “holiday,” on new oil and gas wells and use the extra revenue for oil and gas impacted com-munities. Proponents argued there’s enough drilling going on that the holiday was no longer needed; oil companies

will go wherever there’s oil. Oil industry lobbyists and experts argued, in turn, that isn’t true.

oiL peakedAfter the holiday tax was

introduced in 1993, drilling increased “dramatically.” It worked. But since production peaked in 2006, the rate’s been falling at 6-9 percent with just a little bit of an upturn in the last couple of years due to activity on the eastern edge of Roosevelt County. Natural gas isn’t doing so well either as a subject to commodity pricing.

The rig count is anywhere between four and 12, depending on the source, compared to well over 150 in North Dakota. That drilling that people say is tak-ing place in central, northern, southeast and along the Rocky Mountain Front is exploratory, not actively producing. “We’ve talked a lot about the Montana boom,” Dave Galt, Montana Petroleum Association execu-tive director, told committee members. “I’d suggest that it’s not as big as maybe it’s been made up to be.”

The Elm Coulee was discov-ered in 2000 with some re-entry work of existing wells. Seri-ous development began from 2003-2005; most drilling permits were issued in 2007. The actual oil boom occurred from 2006 to 2008 when drilling was frantic. Drilling rigs, though far short of today’s number in North Dakota, peaked at 20-25 rigs.

So if Montana’s oil boom al-ready happened five years ago, what’s going on now?

During the vast majority of the 2000s, oil companies went after the Elm Coulee which is primarily in Richland County. Horizontal drilling and hydrau-lic fracturing technologies were getting better until oil in North Dakota became economically feasible to drill. Today, Montana oil development remains close to the state line where access to reservoirs is easier to come by. The uptick in production is at-tributed mostly to development near Bainville and in northern Richland County.

impactsWith that in mind, Gilbert’s

claim begins to make sense. And it becomes clearer even more so when he addressed the legislative committee. “The economic boom is what we’re dealing with,” he said, later elaborating: “We’re a bedroom community for the activity tak-ing place in North Dakota.”

What took people by sur-prise, however, was Gilbert’s comments on impacts from oil and gas development. No one, whether oil lobbyist or casual observer, during the course of the discussion, ever denied the effects. Every major news outlet in America and across the region has reported on it, so it baffled some people when Gilbert said, “life in Sidney isn’t all that bad right now” and continued, “things are tougher here, the traffic is heavier, but...I’m living just as well as I ever did.” And after being asked by committee chairman Sen. Bruce Tutvedt, R-Kalispell, why more proponents from eastern Montana weren’t in at-tendance to showcase the need for financial support, Gilbert responded that in addition to the long travel distance, “I think the need has been over exag-gerated...There is a need, but I think the proponents have over

exaggerated that need.” That triggered instant reac-

tion, especially from Sidney res-idents who were left befuddled by the claim. Gilbert did not return requests for comment.

In any case, opposite sides beg to differ. Perhaps it comes down to economics after all. Tom Richmond, executive director of the Montana Board of Oil and Gas, has been monitoring any signs of potential in other parts of the state, but has yet to see anything promising. “Other than this Bakken development, where it is now, the other parts of the state have been pretty disappointing,” he said last month. In fact, there’s been few 100-barrel-a-day wells found. While drilling on the once-hope-ful Blackfeet Reservation is now nonexistent, the Heath Shale in central Montana, during tests, showed initial potential with sustained production from half a dozen a wells. The result? Producers won’t put in much additional effort to extract the oil until it becomes economi-cally viable.

“At this point in time, none of them are economic,” Richmond said. “People were looking for another Bakken, and they didn’t find another Bakken.”

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By GreG ZimmermanPolicy Director, center for Western Priorities

The entire nation has watched the boom of one of America’s richest natu-ral resources. Energy development in the Bakken region has helped the local economy and has ramped up our domes-tic energy production. It has also raised important questions about the future of our lands.

At the nonpartisan, non-profit Center for Western Priorities, we’re watching this boom carefully. We are certainly not against energy development. But we are very much for a common sense and balanced approach as we map out the fu-ture of energy development in Montana and across the West.

Montana is famous for its public lands, clean air, clean water and wild-life. In fact, according to the Outdoor Industry Association, Montana’s out-door recreation economy generates $5.8 billion (with a b!) in consumer spend-ing every year. That amounts to 64,400 Montana jobs, $1.5 billion in wages and salaries, and $403 million in state and local tax revenue.

Bottom line: Montana’s land, water and wildlife are valuable to our econo-

my. We should never lose sight of that through the energy booms and busts that may be in the Treasure State’s future.

So what does the concept of balance mean? At CWP, we support the simple principle of “Equal Ground.” For every acre of public land that the federal gov-ernment leases for energy production, an acre ought to be given some level of protection.

No, we are not advocating for contro-versial land designations. We strongly support public access to the lands we all own. But we also believe in ensur-ing accountability and transparency as energy companies drill for oil and gas resources.

And we believe that pursuing energy without responsible planning will hurt – maybe even destroy – Montana’s economy for future generations.

In late March, Congressman Steve Daines announced support for legisla-tion in the U.S. House that mirrors a Senate bill by Max Baucus and Jon Tes-ter. The bill embodies an Equal Ground approach by preventing future energy developers from drilling in the North Fork of the Flathead River – one of this continent’s most important watersheds

(and one of the state’s best places to fish). This is the sort of bipartisan, common sense protection we’re talking about. All Montanans can agree that some places are not worth ripping up to look underneath.

In eastern Montana, much of the Bakken Boom is happening on private land. We know most Montana landown-ers take great pride in being responsible stewards. It’s been in our families for generations. And it provides income and livelihood.

But as this boom continues, we simply want to remind all Montanans – all Americans – that with development comes responsibility. When it comes to public lands, we need to do what’s right for current and future generations.

That’s why we want to be engaged in this important conversation. It’s a discussion that should involve all Mon-tanans, and we invite you to be a part of it. The Center for Western Priorities is online at westernpriorities.org and we’re on Facebook. Please stop by.

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There are three young, work-ing professionals at Interstate Engineering’s Sidney office who’ve seen their hometown transformed from a quiet farm-ing community to a hustling, bustling economic home base for the roaring energy industry.

They grew up in Sidney, grad-uated high school and went to college, only to return home to start their careers. They are Adam Smith, 26, a 2005 Sidney graduate, his brother, Chad Smith, 25, a 2006 graduate, (they are the sons of Wes Smith and Margie Peterson) and Jordan Mayer, 23, a 2007 Sidney graduate and the son of Kevin and Lori Mayer.

Their stories are similar to other young Richland County natives who left and came back to take advantage of the plentiful good-paying jobs. And they’re similar to each other’s. Adam Smith earned a civil en-gineering degree in 2010 from Montana State University and

began working full time just one week after graduation at Interstate, where he’d interned the summer of 2009. “They said since I didn’t screw anything up, I could come back,” he joked.

His younger brother, Chad, joined him at the beginning of this year after graduating from the University of Montana with a degree in management information systems in 2011. He first worked for ONEOK’s IT department, then transferred to its Grasslands Gas Plant southeast of Sidney where he was employed in the instru-mentation and electrical end of its operations. He transferred to Interstate in January to work on computer networking systems.

Jordan also graduated in 2011 from Montana Tech with a general engineering degree with the civil option and began working for Interstate Engi-neering last year; he’d interned there since his senior year of high school.

Coming homeThe trio of friends have a

cheeky effervescence that per-meates through the lively office they share with several others. They know their superiors, their surroundings and what’s expected of them. There’s a certain comfortableness they seem to share with each other and their coworkers.

“It’s nice being able to work together,” Adam said, who works closely with Mayer on certain projects dealing with subdivisions and site develop-ment. “It’s good to split the workload because we have a lot of stuff going on the way it is.”

These two work side by side, their cubicles at the back of the office located next to each other. Chad splits his time be-tween the office in Sidney and other offices around the area.

They say they enjoy their occupations and especially returning to their hometown. The job market elsewhere in the state is not as rich, and con-nections are easy. “It’s one of the easiest places to find a good

paying job right out of college and gain some experience,” Chad said.

These young professionals stay busy, working upward of 50-60 hours a week, get-ting all the experience they could want without becoming too overwhelmed. Adam and

Jordan say they’re acquiring priceless knowledge as they work through the notori-ously complicated subdivision process that requires coordi-nation among local and state government entities, planning

young natives return home to start careers in area


Natives, from left, Jordan Mayer, Adam Smith and Chad Smith are launching their careers in the lucrative oil patch they call home.

see young, page 44


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departments, developers and architec-ture firms.

“It’s better to be busy and to have to put in a little extra time than to have to look for work,” Adam said.

They’ve even brought friends over, but for whatever reason – mostly the cost of living and housing – they haven’t stayed. Several have moved out of state to find jobs.

Living at homeThere’s, of course, the drawback to

living in an area plagued by a housing shortage. Natives who wish to return home can’t find places to live. And so it’s true for young people who are often forced to move back in with their parents.

It’s like that in Kyle Osborne’s case, a 2010 Sidney graduate who now works as the assistant county planner. He re-turned to Sidney because of the amount of work in his field of study. “This is kind of the best place to get experience because so much is happening at once,” Osborne, who also worked at Interstate, said. “I get a lot more experience in three months here than I would six months or maybe a year if I’d gone to Kalispell.”

Osborne is living with his parents, Keith and Bonnie, while he finishes courses to become a licensed surveyor. His living situation isn’t ideal, he said, but “that just comes with this beast.” In the meantime, he’s working to find other living arrangements, but admits the cost of living and housing prices are a stumbling block. The work is worth it. “I always enjoy it when I’m being kept busy, and I am really enjoying all the ex-perience I’m getting because this is one huge learning experience every day.”

Change or no Change?There’s no question Sidney’s become

a more dynamic city over the last few years and certainly compared to a decade ago. But has it really changed all

that much? Maybe not, say the trio

of friends at Interstate Engineering, who want to see more restau-rants, more shopping, more opportunities for activities. “Nothing’s changed,” Jordan said. “From when you were younger growing up, to

now, what’s changed? A few hotels and cramming people in.” Chad adds, “I think it’d be great to see Sidney grow.” Yet, they’re content with Sidney’s rate of growth, considering it a “happy medium” between nothing at all and Williston, N.D.’s, rush to accommodate new developments.

“Sometimes I feel like everyone’s concerned about how slow Sidney’s growing, but I like controlled growth,” Adam said. “I think it’s more respon-sible growth.”

now what?There’s no telling yet what’ll happen

with the oil and gas industry in the Wil-liston Basin, but one thing’s for certain: Adam, Chad, Jordan and Kyle have no intention to leave the area anytime soon. Adam found a house, Chad’s fix-ing up a house and Jordan’s looking for a house to purchase. Their girlfriends are either from the area or have fol-lowed them for work. In fact, Jordan’s girlfriend’s family moved from Hamil-ton to Sidney last year to find work after he told them about the opportunities.

Their workloads won’t end anytime soon. If anything, it’ll only get busier as the year carries on.

“This summer’s going to be jam-packed. You’re going to see a lot of yellow equipment around,” Jordan warned. “I look forward to what Sidney has to offer in the future.”

[email protected]

Young: Glad to be back in Sidney

osborne

BY Louisa BarBerSidney Herald

Environmental groups are calling for the state to conduct better well inspec-tions after a report showed Montana inspectors are falling behind. The West-ern Organization of Resource Councils, together with the Billings-based North-ern Plains Resource Council, want more funding for inspectors to address increased violations to public health and safety and environmental laws.

“Although Montana’s Board of Oil and Gas inspectors do the best they can, they are woefully overworked and understaffed,” said Pat Wilson, a land and mineral owner in Bainville and a Northern Plains member. “Montana has not increased the number of inspectors since 2004, even though the number of producing wells has shot up exponen-tially.”

The groups cite a WORC “Law & Order in the Oil and Gas Fields” 2013 report which reviews inspection and enforcement programs in five states and the Bureau of Land Management. The report says that in 2011, each Montana inspector was responsible for 1,573 active wells a year, which was fewer than the 540 for North Dakota inspec-tors. The BLM was responsible for 3,019

wells. With the enormous amount of wells, it takes upward of three years to check each one in Montana, two years in North Dakota and almost five years nationwide with some other locations much higher (11 years in New Mexico and 10 years in Wyoming).

The groups also cited a 2011 Mon-tana Legislative Audit of the Board of Oil and Gas Conservation regulatory program performance audit report that found the division did not inspect 58 percent of active wells in at least five years while four wells were inspected more than 20 times and 20 percent of the wells with an inspection deficiency or violation did not get a follow-up inspection.

“Without an organized approach, inspection inconsistencies may com-promise inspection and enforcement efforts,” the audit said. “If inspectors do not inspect wells, violations may go undetected. Because this competitive industry requires a level playing field, established priorities would help ensure consistency in inspections.”

The audit recommended that the division develop tools to help inspection staff plan activities; invoke a risk-based inspection approach that establishes inspection priorities; develop formal

groups want better well inspections

see weLLs, paGe 46


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policies and procedures for the inspec-tion program and ensure they’re applied consistently by staff; standardize how inspections and compliance activities are documented and tracked; ensure compliance with existing timelines to follow rules, identify additional time-lines if needed and establish guidelines for correction action activities; comply with state information technology policy to ensure segregation of duties over the oil and gas information system management; develop a security plan for the information system and disaster recovery plan.

“With more and more wells in the Bakken, it is vital that we increase our funding and staffing for inspection and enforcement,” Caryn Auoub, a Northern Plains member from Helena, said.

ResponseTom Richmond vehemently disagrees

that inspections are falling behind. The number of new wells isn’t especially huge. New oil wells rose 5 percent from 2008-2012 in Montana, and the number fell 5 percent for gas wells. That’s the reason why the agency hasn’t added field inspectors. “About 60 percent of the wells in the state that are shallow gas wells have very little to inspect, and so they’re not inspected every year because

there’s not much to look at,” Richmond said. Many wells have what looks like a rugged Sears tool shed with only a meter and well; there’s nothing to look at in particular.

Inspectors look at drilling rig set-ups, ensure check pits are properly construct-ed and sites are done according to state law, the safety equipment is in place and working, and the hydraulic fracturing rules are followed. The idea that every well must be inspected each year? “We disagree with that,” Richmond said. The state inspects wells when there’s a noted risk, “not just to say we did it.”

The agency’s priority, he says, is to respond to compliance issues, accidents and spills. Beyond that, inspectors check a number of issues – making sure wells are plugged and ensuring surface storage is properly restored before it’s released from bond – among them. He insists that while the agency is working to “clean up” the inspection database and improve how oil and gas wells are reported, it spends more time inspecting the well activity than worrying about how many wells they cover. “Granted, there are things to make the inspection program documented better and be able to produce priorities to make sure ev-erybody’s on the same page, but by and large everything that an inspector’s do-ing is already being inspected,” he said.

Wells: Sides disagree over inspections’ qualityfRom page 44

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Two years into its study on hydraulic fracturing’s effects on drinking water, the EPA continues to study the effects of fracturing on water supplies throughout the country.

Scientists are focusing pri-marily on shale formations to extract natural gas, though it’s including some tight sands and coalbed formations as well.

The research centers around five stages of the fracking water cycle:

1) Possible impacts of large volume water withdrawals from ground and surface waters on drinking water resources.

2) Possible impacts from fracking fluid surface spills on or near well pads.

3) Potential impacts from the well injection of chemicals and the fracturing process.

4) Impacts from plowback and produced water, commonly known as hydraulic fracturing wastewater, surface spills on or

near well pads.5) Impacts of inadequate

frack wastewater treatment to drinking water resources.

update

Back in December, the en-vironmental agency released some 260 pages in its progress report, a year after its first re-port. In it, the agency outlined the sites under study – Penn-sylvania, Wyoming and Texas for example – provided detailed analysis on the procedure, who’s involved and future steps. No preliminary results have been released.

Among the sites under investigation is Killdeer, N.D., in Dunn County, just a few hours east of Richland County, where the number of wells grew almost tenfold in less than a decade (99 in January 2003 up to 854 in July 2012). The Killdeer case study was chosen at the request of North Dakota state officials to specifically examine any water resource impacts from a Sept. 1, 2010, well blowout that resulted in

“an uncontrolled release of hydraulic fracturing fluids and formation fluids.” The Killdeer Aquifer lies beneath the city. The blowout caused more than 100,000 gallons of fluids and mud to have to be removed from the site. Since then, state officials oversee site cleanup, requiring well operators to con-duct ground water monitoring on a quarterly basis.

In the progress report, the EPA cites domestic, municipal and supply wells are being sampled at a tap as close to the wellhead as possible before any treatment occurred. Monitor wells were installed, and water samples collected at selected locations within, and just outside, Killdeer for chemi-cals and compared to existing background information to determine if there had been any contamination.

Researchers conducted two rounds of sampling in July and October 2011 from 10 monitor-ing wells, three domestic water wells, two water supply wells and one municipal water well.

The EPA says at least one more round of sampling is needed to verify data results, along with possible additional sampling from locations.

BackgroundAt the request of the Con-

gress, the EPA took on the four-year study of hydraulic fractur-ing. The technique is used to extract oil and gas by injecting a concoction of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into the rock formation to release the products. Fracking has been around for decades, but it wasn’t until the 2000s that the industry has been able to per-fect it enough to use in tight-oil formations such as the Bakken.

Industry leaders say that without hydraulic fracturing, exploration and drilling would virtually cease to exist. That’s why the EPA’s study findings are of such concern. For years, oil field experts have argued that there are no adverse ef-fects to groundwater. Previous federal studies on fracking have concluded there are no

effects, but calls from envi-ronmental groups forced the federal government to conduct the study.

Many people argue that states should regulate the fracturing process, since they have the background informa-tion and knowledge. In 2011, the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation adopted frack-ing rules; these did not require companies to disclose the ingredients except in emergen-cies. Rather, the public (envi-ronmentalists and industry reps alike) have been turning to a website dedicated to hy-draulic fracturing information, fracfocus.org, where chemicals frequently used in the process are listed.

The board of oil and gas reports zero complaints regard-ing its fracking rules.

shake up?A former EPA administra-

tor under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush

Federal hydraulic fracturing study still under way

see study, pAgE 49


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The oil boom of some 35 years ago brought rampant residential and commercial de-velopment to Richland County. Much of it sprung up out of no-where without any undergoing the subdivision review process.

Like a bad memory, it’s happening again in eastern Montana, as RV parks and man camp sites are being built. Richland County is at the epicenter…at least on the Montana side of the Williston Basin.

Busy pLannersThe figures are eerily similar

between now and then. The county’s population is growing, though it’s not as large as its peak during the last oil boom when the population ballooned to about 14,208. Best guesses – because there’s no clear way to be sure with such a transient, invisible population moving through – puts the county’s population at about 10,810 in 2012, a growth rate of 10.9 percent over 2011. By 2015, the growth rate is projected to be at 35 percent.

The outstanding population coincides with what the county planner’s office experiences. Though 1982 remains the single highest year for plats reviewed, at 116 total plats reviewed, 2012 wasn’t far behind, and there’s a good chance, the next couple years will match or even exceed.

The last six years tells the story. In 2007, the Richland County Planner’s Office re-viewed 14 subdivision applica-tions – just one major (Lambert Subdivision) – and 38 total

plats. By 2011, it reviewed 14 major subdivisions, 13 minor subdivisions and 34 certificate of surveys for a total of 61 plats reviewed.

In 2012, the office reviewed 23 major subdivisions, 12 minor subdivisions and 55 certificate of surveys for a total 90 plats.

“I think we’re on pace to be as busy if not busier than last year. It hasn’t slowed since the end of the year,” Richland County Planner Marcy Ham-burg said.

Long gone are the days Hamburg used to answer two or three emails a day from developers inquiring about subdivision requirements and the like. Now it’s 20-30 every day just from people who are seeking information. Tack on the phone calls and the people who visit in person, the work day disappears quickly.

As of the beginning of April, 21 pre-applications had been submitted with 17 of those expected to go through the subdivision application process. Twelve certificate of surveys have been reviewed. Meanwhile, Richland County commissioners were complet-ing reviewing applications that were submitted last year and will begin to start 2013 applica-tions late this year. “They’re going to be looking at almost 35 applications in the next year,” Hamburg said.

The planning business has been a hectic one. In addition to her switching to a full-time county employee, in the last year, the county’s hired two consultants, Dave DeGrandpre of Land Solutions and Anne Cossitt of Cossitt Consulting. Each also has a planner to re-view subdivisions for Richland

County, which brings the total to five planners. And at the beginning of 2013, Hamburg finally got an assistant she’d been asking for.

The office has essentially grown from one person to six, and still that’s not enough. “I thought that my workload would lighten a little bit more so I could start actually review-ing the full applications from beginning to end,” she said.

“However, I cannot finish the applications. After I complete the element review of an ap-plication then the consulting planners finish the preliminary review process.”

Zoning changesHamburg’s load could actu-

ally lighten, depending on how the end of the legisla-tive session played out. As of mid-April, at least one bill threatened to change how the subdivisions are reviewed with respect to housing units for sale, rent or lease (SRL). The county may be forced to take action as lawmakers were headed toward passing a bill that would exempt buildings or structures that fall under SRL from having to go through the subdivision regulations.

“We wouldn’t be able to review all of the RV and mobile home park units that are being

constructed in our county,” Hamburg said. “As you can tell, in our community, how critical it is that we are able to assess for the impact to the public health and safety.”

The bill is Senate Bill 324, sponsored by Sen. Matt Rosen-dale, R-Glendive, which as of almost a month ago, was passing both houses en route to the governor to sign. In it, SRL buildings wouldn’t have to go through subdivision process, though the structures are still required to have legal water and wastewater systems in place.

Rosendale says the bill leaves the door open for local control. “If a local government feels the criteria is not extensive enough, it can hold a hearing and modify the criteria and put more extensive criteria in place,” he said.

The county may end up taking action altogether. In March, the Richland County Planning Board recommended that county commissioners adopt a zoning ordinance that still allows planners to review SRL subdivisions. The pro-posed zoning ordinance sets in place a permitting process to allow qualifying subdivisions to be granted conditional use permits for a set amount of time on temporary workforce housing.

Housing, in this case, is defined as land with two or more housing units with more than two workers unrelated to the landowner, and which is in-tended to be used for a specific period. Sites that are already legally existing will be grand-fathered in, though they can’t expand without going through the subdivision process.

A number of residents went out in support of the proposed regulations, though they urged the county to consider those who have no other place to live than temporary housing – RVs, mobile homes, modular homes, travel trailers and skid shacks.

Commissioners said they would wait until after the legislative session to decide whether to adopt the zoning. “If we don’t consider this, then we may not have an option to review any,” Hamburg said.

Rosendale, however, insists the reason behind his bill is to ensure there’s a clear proce-dure outlined in the stated law that requires sanitation review and allows for property owners to build their own rentals. Any area that has zoning in place would be exempt from the law as local zoning regulations would supersede.”If someone was to get into a larger, more commercial-type activity, then that review criteria is there in place,” he said.

compLianceWhile county planners are

bombarded with requests to review new subdivision ap-plications, there are still the illegally existing sites that the county and state are working to get a handle on…and do they ever have their hands full.

In addition to hiring addi-tional planners to contract ser-vices, Richland County hired Terry Murphy, an environmen-tal health compliance officer, who would educate the public about the legal way to develop sites, update county codes and enforce the law.

What he saw when he

county officials adjusting to big changes in landscape

‘i think we’re on pace to

be as busy if not busier

than last year.’

marcy hamburgCounty planner

see suBdivisions, page 50

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recently shook up the debate when he addressed the Billings Downtown Exchange Club. “I just believe it would be a better idea to have the states be the primary regulators, but we’re being watched,” Winston Porter said in a Billings Gazette report, noting that the federal agency has yet to find evidence linking groundwater contamination to fracking.

NextIn March, the EPA announced it was

forming a Hydraulic Fracturing Re-search Advisory panel of “independent experts” to peer review the EPA’s study results, in addition to the Science Ad-

visory Board, which is giving scientific feedback on the EPA’s research.

A draft report of the study results is expected in late 2014.

“Our final report on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources must be based on sound science and take into account the latest practices being used by the industry,” acting EPA administrator Bob Perciasepe said. “We have worked to ensure that the study process be open and transparent throughout, and the SAB panel is another example of our approach of openness and scientific rigor.”

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from page 47

Study: Draft report expected in late 2014


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embarked on his new job, astonished him, telling the Herald at the time he was surprised by blatant actions to disregard state law: building struc-tures before going through the review process; discharging sewage into state waters or dumping it into the ground or irrigation ditches.

“The whole thing has surprised me,” he said.

On any given day, Murphy reviews subdivisions, researches property, coordinates with the county sanitarian office, planners and county attorney’s office to set priorities and take action, handles complaints from the public and conducts compliance checks.

There hasn’t been as many water and sewer issues during the winter as there were when Murphy arrived in October, but that is expected to change as the weather warms. Over the winter, he’s dealt with an oil spill after someone abandoned a barrel of used motor oil and had knocked it over; RV residents using straw bales to skirt their trailers (not a good idea when that draws ro-dents and snakes and is highly flamma-ble); and an RV resident whose 250-plus-gallon propane tank underneath their fifth-wheel was hit by a snow plow dur-ing snow removal. “Thank God it didn’t go boom or [the RVs] would’ve been like popcorn,” he said.

Aside from on-the-ground work, Murphy stays in close contact with the Department of Environmental Quality, acting as the state’s eyes. Over the last couple of years, the DEQ has become more prevalent in northeast Montana as the public became vocal about what’s been happening. The department des-ignated one person who works solely on the issues coming from oil and gas country.

“We’ve been pretty active in your part of the world on a lot of different fronts,” said the DEQ oil and gas coordinator Steve Kilbreath, who acts as the depart-ment’s liaison.

According to the DEQ, its Enforce-ment Division received 70 complaints

from eastern Montana in 2012. Of those, 66 were issued formal complaint num-bers and investigated on the ground. And of those, 54 were in Richland County alone. Eight resulted in formal enforcement in which the violators entered into an administrative order without consent; they’ll likely receive penalties and be forced to comply with timeframes. Kilbreath cites a number of cases that the DEQ’s addressed, such as ordering the removal of unapproved trailers from an RV park within the Yel-lowstone River flood plain.

While the DEQ has designated one staffer specifically to handle public water and sewer system issues for east-ern Montana, three enforcement staff members now handle complaints, with 90 percent of their visits to Sidney. “Our staff will go out there and look at the site, see if there are any violations, and send a letter to fix it,” says John Arrigo, the Enforcement Division administra-tor. “That has been very effective, and we’ve gotten a lot of them fixed.”

PatiencePublic health and safety officials

maintain their dedication to enforce compliance by working to prevent new violations while cleaning up the exist-ing ones. State officials say there’s no way to pinpoint how long it’ll take to get the region cleared up, but they suspect the worst violations will be addressed in a couple of years. They assume, eastern Montana will continue to be impacted by the spill over from North Dakota. “Who knows what’s coming ahead?” Arrigo said.

Meanwhile, Murphy can’t place a per-centage on how much work he’s done, though he hopes he’s created some sort of dent. “I would like to think, you know, that I’m making an impact, and it’s obviously better than before, but it’s not a finite number because that number keeps increasing all the time,” he said. “I want to see Richland County being a great place to live, and my job is just a little fraction of that.”

Subdivisions: deQ taking larger rolefrom Page 48

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