Pushing my knowlage

I love organic, local, vegetarian food and the movement that surrounds it. A hint that I might need to re think this...
http://www.wnyc.org/story/214749-you-eat-what-you-are-part-2/

Christmas, Santa and Oil

I wish I was a more eloquent writer and had a way to truly paint the picture for you but lacking those talents this is going to be a crude description of the Christmas season and Santa Clause in the oil town of Dickinson ND.

The Best Friends Mentoring Program in collaboration with the Prairie Hills Mall and White Drug has hosted the traditional Santa Pictures at the Mall. The scene is an iconic small town america Christmas scene played out a lackluster shopping centers from thanksgiving to Christmas  An overweight Caucasian man wears a velvety suit pulled out of storage and decades old, with a fake beard and a Santa hat, sits on a oversize chair surrounded by fake Christmas gifts and holiday decorations. Parent pay to have their child sit with "Santa" have their picture taken and an opportunity to tell Santa that they have been a good child and want such and such a toy.

We are now 4 Christmas seasons into the bakken oil boom and this year things are about to go oil. Santa has arrived for opening picture day at the Prairie Hills Mall via fire truck. I don't know why that has been done, but its they way its always gone. This year .... Santa is going to arrive in an oil truck, additionally there is going to be a bonus picture day where Santa is going to trade in his velvety suit and be wearing a Red FR (Fire Resistant) Jumper and oil company hard hats.

Now I am not a big fan of Christmas, in fact this year have opted to celebrate Hanukkah instead(might be another blog post),  but I know commercialism is the reason for the season, but i can not help but think that the true history behind this tradition is about the birth of a great spiritual leader and wonder just how far we have been blinded by oil money to even betray the commercial ideals of Santa Clause.



The New Release from the Dickinson Press:

Santa coming in oil truck to Prairie Hills Mall

Chris Hammond and Kris Kringle, best known as Santa Claus, have more in common than a similar first name. They have a heart for children. As Santa, Hammond is arriving at Prairie Hills Mall at 11 a.m. on Saturday. He’ll be riding an oil field truck, escorted by Dickinson fire and police vehicles. The Dickinson High School band will play Christmas carols when he arrives.

By: Linda Sailer, The Dickinson Press

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• Santa

Press Photo by Linda Sailer Dressed in oil field gear, Santa (Chris Hammond) inspects a Hamm & Phillips Service Co. truck with yard manager Heath Herring on Oct. 28. Santa will ride on the truck to Prairie Hills Mall on Saturday.

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Chris Hammond and Kris Kringle, best known as Santa Claus, have more in common than a similar first name. They have a heart for children.
As Santa, Hammond is arriving at Prairie Hills Mall at 11 a.m. on Saturday. He’ll be riding an oil field truck, escorted by Dickinson fire and police vehicles. The Dickinson High School band will play Christmas carols when he arrives.
“Santa loves Dickinson — it’s one of my favorite places to come and visit,” Hammond said.
To recognize the families who are working in the Oil Patch, Hammond will make a one-day appearance as Oil Field Santa from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 3, at the mall.
“I’ll be dressed in a traditional oil field workers’ bright red, fire retardant suit, with Santa work gloves, Santa hard hat, Santa safety glasses and steel-toed safety shoe,” Hammond said. “Santa likes driving truck and getting dirty too,” he said.
The appearance is an opportunity for anyone, especially children with ties to the oil field, to have their picture taken with Oil Field Santa. Families may bring hats associated with their businesses to wear for the photos.
Several hats representing oil field companies will be available for the photos.
Prairie Hills Mall looks forward to having Santa come each year, Manager Peggy O’Brien said.
“For me, one of the highlights of decorating for Christmas is preparing Santa’s home.”
She described the mall’s atmosphere as one filled with excitement and magic.
“Children have a twinkle in their eyes when they meet Santa,” she said. “He listens to their wishes, hands out candy canes and the mall provides reindeer ears for all the kids.”
This is the third year that Hammond is Santa. With homes in Annandale, Minn., and Dickinson, he works in the oil fields, hauling production water. But when the holidays arrive, he makes time for Santa.
He said the magic of Santa is talking to the children.
“The kids are so curious — they want to know all kinds of stuff — that Santa is not a figment of their imagination, that he’s real,” Hammond said. “Kids want to know what’s going on in the North Pole. I tell them about my flying buffalo — Santa’s sleigh is getting heavier so we’re trying to get flying buffalo in my herd. I even have a Max-the-flying Buffalo song.”
While the mall is hosting Santa, the photos are a partnership between White Drug and the Best Friends Program. The cost is $10 for two photos.
“When I met Santa a few years ago, he told me he always wanted to be Santa,” Best Friends Director Kris Fehr said. “He’s very much able to converse with the kids and establishes a good rapport with them. He’s got his regulars who come back, maybe every week. We’re pretty lucky to have him.”
The idea of an Oil Field Santa is an opportunity to recognize the energy industry, Fehr said.
“It might be fun to have a picture of Santa dressed in a fracking suit and wearing a hard hat from a particular company,” she said. “It can be a unique keepsake — how many places get to see Santa wearing oil field clothes?”
A percentage of the Santa photos goes to support the Best Friends — a mentoring program for at-risk youth in southwestern North Dakota.
For more information, call the Best Friends office at 701-483-8615.

Tags: lifestyle, dickinson, santa, local

oppose drilling in Killdeer Mountains

Published October 23, 2012, 12:00 AM

Proposed wells draw controversy: Rancher, tribal member oppose drilling in Killdeer Mountains

Home to one historic battlefield site already, the Killdeer Mountains are the subject of a new North Dakota fight. This time, however, the battle is not between the U.S. Army and tribes of Native Americans, but rather between the oil industry and the people who live near and use the mountains, which begin about eight miles northwest of Killdeer.

By: Bryan Horwath, The Dickinson Press

Home to one historic battlefield site already, the Killdeer Mountains are the subject of a new North Dakota fight.
This time, however, the battle is not between the U.S. Army and tribes of Native Americans, but rather between the oil industry and the people who live near and use the mountains, which begin about eight miles northwest of Killdeer.
Much to the chagrin of some Dunn County residents and native tribes that use the land for ceremonial purposes, the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources Oil and Gas Division, an arm of the Industrial Commission, will host a hearing Wednesday in Bismarck regarding the addition of a number of new oil drilling sites in the county and around the state, several of which would be in the immediate area of the mountains.
“It’s a travesty,” said Loren Jepson, a rancher who lives about 15 miles northwest of Killdeer. “People should be concerned about this. If you care about hunting, searching for native artifacts or birdwatching in the Killdeer Mountains, that’s all in jeopardy.”
Though drilling is not allowed in certain areas in and around the mountains, Jepson said the addition of four — and possibly more — hydraulic fracturing sites in the area could exacerbate issues residents are already facing because of drilling north of Killdeer along ND Highway 22, such as heavy truck traffic, dust and noise.
“It’s a quality of life issue,” Jepson said. “We know that there has been and will continue to be drilling here, I just wish the oil companies would have more respect for the people who have lived here their whole lives. I wish the oil companies would just work with people.”
The proposed new wells — which are just a few of dozens that will come before ND Oil and Gas this week — would be in close proximity to the Killdeer Mountain Battlefield State Historic Site and certain areas that some Native American tribes consider to be sacred, such as Medicine Hole, a cave-like site in the mountains that has been part of Native American lore for decades.
A member of the Three Affiliated Tribes and an instructor of Native American studies at Fort Berthold Community College in New Town, Delvin Driver Sr., said the Killdeer Mountains — especially Medicine Hole — have a lot of spiritual significance for his people.
“This is an area where people from different tribes, from all over, come to fast and make contact with different spirits,” Driver said. “This is sacred land. The native people are spiritual people and the land is who we are. If there is a lot of interference for the people who go in those mountains, it’s not going to be a good spiritual experience for them.”
Driver added he understands that drilling is a fact of life in North Dakota.
“The oil industry is here and it will continue to be here,” Driver said. “But they don’t really see our views — they see money. They’ll step on anybody’s foot to get more.”
The historic battlefield site in the Killdeer Mountains commemorates an 1864 skirmish between the Army and a gathering of Yanktonai, Dakota and Teton Indians. As legend has it, Medicine Hole is a narrow passageway leading off the mountaintop through its base used by natives to escape U.S. soldiers during the conflict more than a century ago.
Jepson said he has retained the Dickinson law firm Mackoff Kellogg to fight the location of the proposed wells and will be in attendance at the hearing on Wednesday.
“I don’t know what to expect,” Jepson said. “I know a lot of others in the community feel the same way I do, but it seems that nobody will do anything about it. I’m trying to do something about it.”
Hess Corp. is listed as the proprietor of the wells on ND Oil and Gas documents. Representatives from Hess could not be reached for comment Monday.

Tags: killdeer mountains, native americans, new town, oil, news, dickinson, local, killdeer, energy, ranch, mountain, fight, battlefield, history, historic

Wast Water Near Housing Development

I realize I have not been doing many personal posts over the last few weeks, I guess my life has become fairly unexciting but the fracking news just keeps coming ...

ND approves frack water disposal well near Killdeer

The North Dakota Industrial Commission on Monday approved the creation of a saltwater disposal well outside of Killdeer that some think is too close to a future subdivision.

By: By Bryan Horwath, The Dickinson Press

1. The North Dakota Industrial Commission on Monday approved the creation of a saltwater disposal well outside of Killdeer that some think is too close to a future subdivision.

During a meeting in Bismarck, the IC ruled that Waterworks Killdeer LLC would be allowed to dispose of saltwater and other fluids used in the hydraulic fracturing process in an area where lots are for sale.

In a compromise of sorts, Waterworks Killdeer agreed to position its new injection well further away from the planned 20-lot subdivision, but not the 2,500 feet further away engineer and contracting owner Cory Ravnaas had requested for the site, which is about nine miles west of Killdeer.

In a letter sent to the IC in August, Ravnaas argued it would be “inappropriate to site a commercial saltwater disposal well immediately adjacent to a platted residential neighborhood,” according to the IC.

In a separate letter to the IC, Dahl Homestead Development owners Tim and Fayleen Fischer also requested the disposal well be moved away from the subdivision site, citing concerns about added truck traffic, noise and dust.

“We don’t have an issue with the well itself,” Fayleen Fischer said Tuesday. “We would just prefer it wasn’t so close to the site.”

Ravnaas went a step further in his letter, saying he thought it would be “disastrous to the success of the new rural residential community.”

Testifying on behalf of Waterworks Killdeer at an earlier hearing before the IC, Brent Lansberg stated the company was willing to move the surface facilities of the operation away from the subdivision site, though he said they would not move the requested 2,500 feet.

In its finding, the IC did not list a specific distance for surface operations to be moved. At the hearing, Lansberg had noted Waterworks Killdeer still needed to obtain an approach permit from the North Dakota Department of Transportation for access to the site and added the company would attempt to receive permission to gain access directly from Highway 200 to limit truck traffic.

Also in the finding, the IC noted that “the proposed injection well will be constructed in such a manner as to prevent the movement of fluids into or between underground sources of drinking water,” something the IC doesn’t take lightly, said Department of Mineral Resources Public Information Officer Alison Ritter.

“The construction of injection wells is something that is taken very seriously,” Ritter said. “All wells are tested monthly to make sure they are in full working order.”

Another subdivision, owned by a different company, is planned for an 80-acre site east of Killdeer. Work is expected to begin on that site later this year.

Ravnaas declined to comment to The Dickinson Press about the decision by the IC.

Tags: industrial commission, oil, killdeer, well, frack, fracking, oil, energy, local, news, ic, regulation, minerals

North Dakota outlook on the world

If you are thinking about moving to ND from a larger population center this article should give you a good taste of how our community perceives the outside world.

Medora teen in NY to share 'stupid' trick

When Ashley Ellison, 16, Medora, found out she could whistle through her eye socket, she didn’t think anything of it.

By: Katherine Grandstrand, The Dickinson Press

When  Ashley Ellison, 16, Medora, found out she could whistle through her eye socket, she didn’t think anything of it.

“It’s just me blowing air through my eye,” she said Monday morning at the Bismarck Airport waiting to board a plane on her way to New York. “I thought everybody could kind of do it and I didn’t think it was that rare of a thing, but I guess it is.”
But that quirk is sending the Belfield High School junior and her parents, Mary and Doug Ellison, on a trip to New York and she has a chance to be broadcast nationwide as part of stupid human tricks on “Late Show with David Letterman.”
She will be one of six performers in the segment, but only three will make the cut to the national broadcast this evening. The show is taped in the early evening and then edited and aired at 9:35 MDT.
The show paid for Ashley and one parent to fly to New York and stay Monday and tonight. They bought a third ticket so the whole family could go.
The Ellisons decided to send in a video of Ashley’s talent last spring, and it took about six months to get a response, she said.
“My parents did it just to annoy me,” Ashley said. “They’re like, ‘We’re going to send it to the Letterman show for Stupid Human Tricks,” and I’m like ‘OK, whatever,’ and, yeah, I guess it worked.”
She was very surprised when she found out she was chosen.
“I kind of went into shock,” Ashley said. “My parents called me to let me know when I was in the middle of algebra II.”
Her class thought it was bad news, like a death in the family.
“I couldn’t say sentences,” she said.
If picked, this appearance will complete a TV and film trifecta for the family. Mary was in the film “Wooly Boys,” which was filmed in Medora and Doug has appeared on The History Channel.
This is not the first time Ashley’s schedule has dictated a family vacation, Mary said.
“We feel like we keep following Ashley around,” she said. “We’ve been to Washington, D.C., because of her History Day participation and she needed to go to Mexico to get her scuba diving certification.”
New York wouldn’t have been the couple’s first choice for a getaway, Doug said.
“It’s kind of ironic, my wife Mary and I always had kind of said, ‘Who would want to go to New York City,’” Medora’s mayor said.
But Ashley is excited to see the world’s second-largest city.
“I’m hoping that we have some time to kind of tour around and see all of the stuff, like the Empire State Building and things like that, the Statue of Liberty,” she said.
The guests tonight are Kaley Cuoco from “The Big Bang Theory,” of which Ashley is a fan, and The Whigs.
While in New York, Medora’s mayor did not have any meetings planned with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Doug said.
“His schedule is probably busier than mine,” he said. “So probably not.”
Late Show was contacted via email, but The Press did not hear back by 3 p.m. Monday.

Tags: ashley ellison, news, medora, local

Oil Well explosion, North Dakota

Not wanting this to go by unnoticed.....

Crews clean at oil well blowout site

WILLISTON — Cleanup crews baled contaminated vegetation, scraped away affected soil and power washed equipment Monday after an oil well blowout south of here that sprayed oil and salt water into nearby fields.

By: Amy Dalrymple, The Dickinson Press

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Amy Dalrymple/Forum Communications Kris Roberts, an environmental geologist with the North Dakota Department of Health Division of Water Quality, oversees the cleanup of an oil well blowout near Williston.

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WILLISTON — Cleanup crews baled contaminated vegetation, scraped away affected soil and power washed equipment Monday after an oil well blowout south of here that sprayed oil and salt water into nearby fields.

Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death of a worker who was struck by a pickup as a worker drove it away from the spewing oil.

The blowout, which sprayed 400 barrels of oil and 400 barrels of produced water used for hydraulic fracturing, is not believed to have contaminated water sources, said Kris Roberts, an environmental geologist with the North Dakota Department of Health Division of Water Quality.
However, the cleanup contractor expanded the perimeter of the affected area because workers were seeing vegetation that was wilting and turning brown, Roberts said. The area that was most heavily affected is estimated to be about 30 to 40 acres. A mist of oil and salt water is believed to have extended no further than a mile in opposite directions of the well, affecting crop and pasture land.

Workers estimated they recovered about 200 barrels of each fluid as they got control of the well, Roberts said. The incident occurred during the evening of Aug. 14 and into the next day.
Cleanup crews placed absorbent booms to prevent the contamination from spreading to Long Creek, which empties into Lake Sakakawea. They also worked to cut and remove vegetation that was contaminated, Roberts said.

“By getting it out of there as quickly as possible, we will see very little impact to the soil itself,” Roberts said.

Crews had completed the drilling and hydraulic fracturing process for that well and were completing the well for production when the blowout occurred, Roberts said.

The release of salt water and chemical solution is more devastating than an oil spill, Roberts said.
“A lot of times, if it’s just an oil release, vegetation will have completely recovered by the next season,” he said. “With a salt water release, if we don’t handle it properly and quickly, that type of impact could last three years.”

The company that controlled the well, Zavanna, which is based in Denver, is cooperating with the cleanup and being proactive, Roberts said.

“They are very concerned with the impacts and working to clean up the impact so that the landowners have as little problem as possible,” Roberts said.

Roberts said Zavanna also deserves a pat on the back for the design of its well site, which has a raised area similar to a racetrack around the site. That design helped contain the spill.
The company could face fines from the Department of Health or the Department of Mineral Resources, depending on the outcome of the investigation.

Zavanna did not return calls seeking comment.

Field inspectors from the Department of Mineral Resources are investigating what led to the incident, said spokeswoman Alison Ritter.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been advised of the spill but so far is not involved, Roberts said.

Wayne Biberdorf, a former Hess Corp. engineer who now serves as energy impact coordinator for Gov. Jack Dalrymple, said a blowout incident is rare, and industry leaders will be studying this case. A blowout is an uncontrolled release of reservoir fluids into the wellbore.

“Even a small number is serious,” said Biberdorf, who was not familiar with the specifics of this incident. “Most companies take a long, hard look at those types of incidents.”
Roberts estimates that health officials have responded to about four or five blowout incidents in the past two years.

“It’s very few, considering the number of oil wells that are being drilled and the ones that are already in existence,” Roberts said.

Eric Brooks, assistant director for the Bismarck Area OSHA Office, said the victim worked for Steamboat Energy Consultants as an independent contractor who oversaw the operation of the workover rig.

The man was identified as 39-year-old Jason Pinasco of Higden, Ark.

As oil was spraying all over, workers moved their pickups away from the well, Brooks said. One of the pickups struck and killed Pinasco. Brooks said he did not have information about the driver’s employer.

Williams County Sheriff Scott Busching said his office considers the case an accident. The Williams County State’s Attorney’s Office was still reviewing the case on Monday.

This is the eighth workplace death from the oil and gas industry since Oct. 1 that the Bismarck Area OSHA Office has investigated.

Pinasco was married and had a son and daughter, according to an obituary published in Farmington, N.M. The obituary said he spent his career working in the oilfield.

“He loved his work and the wonderful people he met all over the states,” the obituary reads.
A representative from Steamboat Energy Consultants referred questions to Zavanna.
Dalrymple is a reporter stationed in the Oil Patch. Reach her at adalrymple@forumcomm.com or 701- 580-6890.

Friends of TRNP consider possible threats

THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK — While much of Saturday’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park Elkhorn Ranch Unit expedition hosted by Friends of TRNP was about experiencing the smallest and least accessible part of park first-hand, it was also about awareness of threats to the historic site that our nation’s 26th once called home.

By: Katherine Grandstrand, The Dickinson Press

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• Clay Jenkinson

Press Photo by Katherine Grandstrand Clay Jenkinson, author and Theodore Roosevelt historian, addresses a group about the history and possible threats to Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s Elkhorn Ranch Unit on Saturday on an expedition to the ranch.

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THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK — While much of Saturday’s Theodore Roosevelt National Park Elkhorn Ranch Unit expedition hosted by Friends of TRNP was about experiencing the smallest and least accessible part of park first-hand, it was also about awareness of threats to the historic site that our nation’s 26th president once called home.

While the 216 acres that are officially the Elkhorn Ranch Unit of TRNP cannot be touched by any developments, the area surrounding it can, Roosevelt historian and past Friends of TRNP president Clay Jenkinson said Saturday.

“Ninety-four percent of North Dakota is open for development,” he said. “There are only a teeny number, maybe less than 10, but of this status, maybe less than five places in North Dakota that are so amazing that, if we could do it, it would be in our interest to try and keep this feel to it forever.”
The specific threats are a proposed bridge crossing the Little Missouri River between Watford City and Medora, which would also fall in between the North and South units of the park, hobby ranches in the Badlands, a proposed gravel mine near the site and ever-increasing oil activity, he said.

There are two oil wells visible from just outside the Elkhorn Ranch, one that is very visible and put there in the 1990s, TRNP Superintendent Valerie Naylor said Saturday. The other was set up on the same bluff more recently, but the oil company worked with the park and other officials to camouflage the pumping jack.
“Those are all things that the industry and the forest service work together on, and even the state,” North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness said Monday. “But in essence those things have coexisted out there since 1954.”

As far as pure engineering goes, the best place for the proposed bridge is more or less at the Elkhorn Ranch site, but as that land is protected, that place is out of the question, Jenkinson said. There are eight proposed options for the bridge, many of which could be seen or heard from the Elkhorn Ranch Unit.

The proposed gravel mine would be visible from just outside the ranch, but would be audible from the 216 acres while in operation. The U.S. Forrest Service owns the land, but not the mineral rights, which are held in part by Roger Lothspeich of Miles City, Mont.
Lothspeich did not wish to comment when called Monday.

John Dobbins, Dickinson, visited the Elkhorn Ranch Unit with his son, R.J., for the first time Saturday.

“Let’s do a little moderation here, slow it down a little bit,” he said. “One of our former presidents, his dream home, and now we want to build a road after what you hear about on the oil field highways.”
Much of the development, while brought on by the oil boom, is not directly related to the oil industry, Ness said.

“You’ve got to build that infrastructure in order for things to be more systematic in the approach,” he said. “That infrastructure’s gotta get built. … That’s the pace that everybody sees and feels is all of the activity, not just the oil activity.”

Because TRNP is segmented and because it is small by national park standards, at more than 70,000 acres, it is harder to protect, said Eileen Andes, TRNP chief of interpretation and public affairs Saturday. In comparison, Yellowstone National Park is 2.2 million acres.

The site holds historic significance because Roosevelt sought solace in the isolation of the open prairies and Badlands in 1884 after the Valentine’s Day deaths of his mother and his first wife, Jenkinson said. After he came to his first ranch, the Maltese Cross, he found the area too crowded and searched north along the Little Missouri for a quiet, secluded spot. A friend notified him of the Elkhorn Ranch site.

Roosevelt began building a house and other buildings that fall with the intention of staying in Dakota Territory, Jenkinson said. He later went back to New York where he was reacquainted with childhood sweetheart Edith Kermit Carow.

After that he visited the ranch less and less, Jenkinson said. Eventually he stopped coming to the Elkhorn Ranch and the buildings were raised by the turn of the 20th century.
“There are persistent rumors in the Badlands that some of the boards of the Elkhorn are in this ranch or that ranch,” he said.

TRNP officials and the Friends of TRNP will continue efforts to preserve the Elkhorn Ranch so future generations can experience the site as Roosevelt did in 1884, Friends President David Nix, Bismarck, said.

“It’s actually the most culturally significant site in the park,” Andes said Thursday. “And it’s one of the most culturally significant sites in North Dakota, as well, and it’s really important nationally, as well.”

Tags: theodore roosevelt national park, clay jenkinson, news, dickinson, local