Montana News

Bakken not the only thing booming in eastern Montana

Posted: Feb 9, 2012 7:50 AM by Drew Trafton
Updated: Feb 9, 2012 7:50 AM

BILLINGS- If you take a drive through north Richland County, you'll see a lot of nothing.

And, since it is February, you'll probably see a lot of nothing not doing much moving.

Unless, that is, you happen to drive by Continental Resources' hydraulic fracturing site about 45 miles northwest of Sidney.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as ‘fracking', is a process which expands fissures and breaks up rock thousands of feet to a few miles below the surface of the earth where pockets of natural resources are being sealed up tightly by non-porous rock.

In order to expand the rock and move the resource to a desirable location for extracting, companies like Continental Resources uses a mixture of millions of gallons of water and millions of pounds of sand to accomplish the mission.

The sand used in the process is very expensive, as it has to be of a particular size, shape and strength.

Because of the strict regulations, only a handful of places on earth produce the sand.

On a tour of the fracking site on Tuesday morning, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer told representatives from Continental Resources he has people working on finding sand which could be used from Montana, all of which could be sold for three times cheaper because the sand wouldn't have to be imported from a different state.

Throughout the tour, Schweitzer continually made it known that he was more than just in favor of the process continuing in Montana.

"You've got a little more conducive rock out there (North Dakota), and you've got the deep end of the swimming pool and we're the shallow end of the swimming pool, but we still want to get as much of that production here in Montana as possible," said Schweitzer.

That statement might make those opposed to fracking in Montana squirm.

One of the controversies surrounding the process involves a gel which is part of the water and sand mixture.

Opponents of fracking say that the chemicals in the gel can cause the mixture to become hazardous and leak into drinking water- and can be demonstrated by numerous viral videos online.

Continental Resources says the gel is mostly made up of a plant which is grown in India, and Schweitzer says that the gel is completely safe.

"Whatever toxicity that gel has is nothing compared to what it looks like at 9,500 feet," said Schweitzer.

"99.2% of everything that's pumped into those wells is just sand and water."

But regardless of the controversy, the governor says the process has opened the door for Montana to play a much larger role in the Bakken.

"Not only has it marketedly increased the oil production in Montana, it also increases the rate at which we can extract that oil from those oil and gas wells," said Schweitzer.

But the Bakken boom isn't only bringing an economic spike to eastern Montana.

Currently, the city of Sidney is facing accelerated growing pains, as population projections show the community will double in size, from 5,000 to 10,000 people within the next three years.

Unfortunately for the community, the recent death of Sidney School teacher Sherry Arnold proved how painful that growth can be.

"The best way to say it, you know, is that wolves follow the herds," said a native Montanan working at the fracking site. "And there's a herd of people coming in."

Following the tour of the site, Governor Schweitzer stopped by City Hall in Sidney where several prominent community members were waiting for a moment of his time-all wanting to discuss how the small city will handle the oncoming herd.

"Staffing is an issue for us, housing is an issue for us," said Dr, Daniel Farr, the superintendent of schools in Sidney. "Plus, with 758 projected students coming in the next two to three years, facilities become an issue for the community."

During the open forum, Sidney mayor Bret Smelser handed Governor Schweitzer a list of more than $40,000,000 worth of infrastructure improvements the city will need to sustain the growth.

"I'm going to take these back to our budget, and find ways within current statute to see if we can get some money out of this as quickly as possible," said Schweitzer.

But for now, the Bakken play in eastern Montana presents a double-edged sword as the price of economic development is coming at a cost for communities like Sidney.