The Filth of North Dakota
Posted by Core Mini Bins on April 15th, 2017
Critics of the North Dakota government say clean up from protesters’ cardboard picket signs pales in comparison to the pollution of an asserted half to full century of alleged radioactive waste from fracking and oil pipeline spills in the state.
Each party blames the other, but accusations were really flown into the fan after the North Dakota governor and authorities claimed feces and garbage leaked into the river from the Oceti Sakowin Camp creating a risk to public health. Indian critics assert these claims are just ‘spin’ to media outlets, since all sanitation support was long removed from the city. Many residents were forced out in mid-winter and lost large amounts of food stores saved up for the cold season.
Water contamination is also a big concern and received emphasis after Morton Country contaminated water protectors and cannons with unidentified toxins, antifreeze, and mace, which ended up in the river. The long list of garbage and contamination chaos reads like an environmental horror story, particularly with reference to the health of citizens.
Another incident of gross negligence in Morton County resulted in an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation. A local man who identifies as a rancher used 40,000 pounds of the prairie dog poison, Rozol, including and covering a ranch area encompassing the adjoining Missouri River without a pesticide certification to authorize use. The ensuing investigation into his actions uncovered that the pellets were dispersed directly on the ground instead of exclusively to prairie dog burrows, which left dead prairie dogs littering the area, six eagles, and dead bison were also found. The Rozol caused the animals to die slow and painfully of massive blood loss. The rancher later profited by selling the ranch six months later to Energy Transfer Partners to the tune of approximately million.
It doesn’t help that the state recently increased acceptable amounts of radiation exposure to approximately 12.5 per cent. What many state residents find most irksome is a lack of fines for oil companies contributing to ongoing spillage of more than 100,900 gallons of crude, waste, and bio oils, brine and natural gases. These were reported by North Dakota Health to have occurred since January 2016. In the meantime, large-scale spills are still listed on clean up efforts. Few can forget culprits as recent as 2015 and the prior few years attributed to XTO Energy and Oasis Petroleum Inc., among others. Experts note that companies rarely receive fines.
Propositions for penalties have, (half-heartedly it seems to concerned residents), been made by the N.D Industrial Commission of approximately .5 million of which only about 6,000 has been collected. Add to this mix the recent completion of the newest Standing Rock pipeline, which opponents cite as a threat to the water supply. The initial proposal was rejected by the N.D city of Bismarck for the same concerns.
The N.D governor has praised the pipeline and thrown the blame back, primarily at many critical indigenous activist protestors. The contamination and waste problem is not a top priority at the federal level either under the Trump administration. If the contamination claims are true, then health risks such as disease from exposure to radiation levels are less likely to be classified by the N.D government as rubbish.
