Northern North Dakota

Oil industry in ND.  It’s an onslaught. 

The ride north from Medora was worse than expected.  The amount of oil development was way beyond what I was prepared for.  It’s not bad around the Minot area where my friend Tighe lives, but the western part of the state was overrun.  The presence of the industry is everywhere.  Pump jacks, storage tanks, pipelines, trucks, people, new roads, and damage to the old roads…  Now I can see why there were no rooms available.  I’ve never driven US 85 or ND 23 before, but the proportion of vehicles that were obviously oil industry vehicles was huge.  I don’t think it would unreasonable to say that 1/3 to ½ of all the vehicles on the roads outside of cities and towns were oil industry related, although the towns were clearly overrun, too.  It’s awful. 

While the focus of this trip has been ecological, I find myself thinking as much or more about the inevitable impact on the local communities, too.  Minot is large enough that they can probably absorb the oil impact and even benefit – mostly.  I’m convinced a way of life will be lost in small towns over a large area.  The presence of the oil industry will overwhelm everything:

The number of people will increase – significantly and rapidly (it already has and will continue) and those people have money.  Land prices will skyrocket and taxes will skyrocket with them; will people be priced out of their homes?  How closely will the crime rate follow?    

Where once everyone knew each other, now there will be transient people.  Will they belong to the community or participate in it?  How much of the money they earn will stay in the community?

Enrollment in schools will increase; will infrastructure and staff keep pace?

There will be an increase in construction, but the demand will likely wane when the initial flush of activity ceases; what will happen to those buildings? 

With the increase in people and industry will come an increase in traffic (already noted), traffic from bigger vehicles which damage the roads (already noted) and make once quiet country roads dangerous.  Will it be safe for school buses or kids learning to drive?

The boom will be temporary, but the impacts will endure.  You can’t go backwards.  The change is permanent.  I’m not so naïve to assume things won’t or shouldn’t change, but the motive of the change and speed with which the change occurs is not planned and can’t be fully prepared for.   

The word sustainability comes to mind.  I hesitate to use it as it is almost becoming cliché, but it gets at the heart of what I’m questioning.  What I see happening is not sustainable in almost any way, certainly not ecologically.  And I saw no attempt to even suggest any effort to be sustainable.  They’re extracting what they can as fast as they can.  And without apology.  I’m starting to wonder why we bother with a written language – we certainly don’t seem to take the time to read the lessons of our history.