Fin Dooley
Salted Land Tours 1, 2, and 3...40?
The Bottineau County farmers commissioners are weary. At the beginning of the year 2014 one farmer calculated that he did 30 tours without any significant effect on public officials elected or appointed. Now in early August of 2014 after 10 more tours the New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Detroit News, a French television station, and North Dakota public officials showed up. The director of oil and gas Lynn Helms promised that the salted lands would be restored. Carline Fine, secretary to the North Dakota Industrial Commission made the same promise in writing. This 4 page pictorial vividly displays what you see when you tour ground zero for salt contaminated land in North Dakota. After reviewing Salted Land Tours 1, 2, and 3 (we have not separately described tours 4 thru 40) please click the donate button.
Your contribution will move us onto making an accurate count of salt contaminated acres in ground zero North Dakota. We will utilize the gifts of Josh Gage, Montana geographer who has already created an interactive salt spill map. He utilized only a small set of data from the North Dakota Health Department. The more focused next stage of his salt spill map will bare down on Bottineau County. It will incorporate relevant Bottineau County salt spill data from a 2010 and 2011 report of 1,579 statewide spills reluctantly prepared by the Oil and Gas Division. Lynn Helms' reluctance to report salt spills is strongly displayed by the agencies refusal to make a 2012-2014 report. The 2010-2011 report is not an audited report. Neverless the report shows 1/3 of the salt spilt was never recovered. The North Dakota scouts honor system is contrived to avoid responsibility. Likewise it is contrived to be incomprehensible. We addressed that incomprehensibility by preparing two spreadsheets of saltwater and oil spills. The spreadsheets show which company spillt how much and in which county during the interval time 2010-2011.
By use of aerial mapping, Google Earth and county soil maps, any visitor to the interactive map will be able to calculate the acreage of salt poisoned land well by well. Similar acreage calculations can be made in off-site spills flowing into watersheds. Recent pipeline breaks in Bottineau County appear to have inflicted between $6 and $40 million of damages depending upon who makes the rough estimate. The truth is throughout the first 60 years of North Dakota oil development, no one wanted to pay for the soil and water tests necessary for a solid number.
The method for making a contribution is as follows:.
Tax deductible contributions to "Salt Contaminated Lands and Water Council" can be made online at: