McKenzie County Soil District and Conservation Service Seeks Public Input

With the oil boom people are seeing many changes, some positive and some negative. When it comes to the agricultural community, there are many concerns regarding the land. The McKenzie County Soil Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service are actively trying to address the many concerns and issues that are being seen. They have had a few public input sessions to find out what the main concerns are. They have done prior sessions regarding other topics, but this time around the focus is on the Oil and Gas related issues.

Meetings were held in Cartwright, Grassy Butte and Squaw Gap February 27 and 28, where numerous topics were discussed. There will also be meetings held in Watford City and Keene.

During these meetings, District Conservationist Kyle Hartel, discussed the natural resource concerns the district is seeing on private land from oil industry activities. He stated that they put on these meeting so the public can, “see what we’re up to and make sure we are going down the right path.”

Some of the oil-related issues that have been seen include: dust control, increased saline seeps, access roads are not planned out, large areas replaced by scoria, fields being left idle, land not being restored following pipeline construction, along with others.

Many of the issues address the quality of the soil and plants following or during oil production. One area that has been affected are the trees along the roadways, which work as a wind and snow block, they are becoming crippled due to the dust rising and closing up the pores in the leaves. Other areas affected include the fields and areas left to natural ways, which are being used for oil production. These areas are being turned into large scoria ‘work yards’ and dug up for pipelines and potentially not restored to original condition. Along with this, when the soil is turned up it causes the moisture to evaporate from the soil causing an increase in salinity, or ‘saltiness’.

All of these issues are affecting the agriculture producers in the area. The Natural Resources Conservation Service and the McKenzie County Soil Conservation District are actively doing work to help the producers including: re-seeding pipeline areas, providing soil maps and information, limit wetland manipulation, and grass and tree planting plans. Hartel stated that, “while beneficial, this is not enough.”

The NRCS and MCSCD are planning to collaborate with the surrounding county districts to get some ideas for action and to move forward with them.

Let your voice, whether positive or negative, be heard at these upcoming meetings.

The meeting in Watford City will be March 6 from 1 pm until 3 pm CST at the Power Fuels Apartments Clubroom, while the meeting in Keene will be held March 7 from 1 pm until 3 pm CST at the Keene Dome.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the MCSCD and NRCS at 1-701-842-3628 Ext. 3.