The local press covered the event, but reporters relayed an official message that soothed anxious observers and investors into believing that there was no threat to the lake or the environment.
Bismarck attorney and blogger Chad Nodland thought there was more to the story and his blog post painted a much different picture.
Hey, wait a minute! I thought all the news stories said the wind blew the poisonous fracking liquids away from the lake! I thought all the newspapers and radio and TV told us the oil and poison blow-out was contained to the well pad and an area around it surrounded by a berm! And a guy in state government says, "it is a lot worse than has been reported" in the press and oil sprayed out 4,100 feet onto the lake?!? Forty-one hundred feet is more than three quarters of a mile. That's like nine (9) city blocks. The news reports suggested the well is "1/2 mile north of the lake." A half-mile is 2,640 feet. So they're saying the well sprayed 6,740 feet?!? I thought the news stories said the mist only blew 2,000 feet to the southwest, and only 1,500 feet to the northeast.
"A lot worse than has been reported in radio and print media."
And it was.
A letter from the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service asks for staff assistance in clean-up of public and private lands at the Van Hook Recreation area, as well as "subsequent clean up efforts to be conducted on Lake Sakakawea."
According to the March 2013 correspondence from USACE, the ruptured oil well had sprayed material onto private and public lands adjacent to the site. The original PDF is no longer available on the web. A partial screen shot of the cached letter is shown here.
Screen Shot by Georgianne Nienaber
So, the wind was not blowing the mist away from the lake as reported by the Minot Daily News and others.
In fact, a site visit report prepared by the Corps of Engineers (COE) on December 14 and 17 describes a "strata of crude/snow mix that ranged in thickness from one half to one inch. "Crude was identified as (a) yellow/orange layer of snow." The crude extended approximately 4,100 feet into lake Sakakawea, and half was on ice. Oil was observed on the snow, ice, bare ground and trees.
USACE Drawing of Blowout by USACE
An emergency containment plan was put into place that included snow removal, water barriers to prevent spring run-off from further contaminating the lake, and continual monitoring of the remediation process. An initial progress report was issued by an environmental consulting firm hired by Slawson.
In March 2013 the consulting firm prepared a contamination-sampling plan for Slawson. The lab report was issued on June 20, 2013 and showed elevated levels of Trifluorotoluene and Fluorobiphenyl compounds. Both are toxic to aquatic organisms.
Who was responsible for cleanup? Is it the tribe, the landowner, the well owner, or the federal government?
An understanding of land use definitions as they apply to the enforcement of Federal, State and Tribal Laws is critically important. The federal government holds legal title to "trust land," but the beneficial interest remains with the tribe or individual Indian. The land cannot be encumbered or conveyed without the approval of the United States and can never be sold. "Restricted fee" means the tribe or individual Indian holds legal title to restricted fee land, but there are legal restrictions against alienation or encumbrance. This land can be conveyed or sold only with the approval of the United States. "Fee Simple Absolute" refers to historical tribal territory that tribes have purchased back from non-Indian owners.
Since the blowout occurred on sovereign land, federal and state jurisdictions for the cleanup and analysis of what went wrong fell to the EPA, the USACE and the North Dakota Game and Fish department.
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