BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The North Dakota Legislature has recently increased funding to repair and research saltwater pits in Bottineau and Renville that were condemned and covered in the 1980s.
The Legislature’s project could cost $200 million over the next three decades, Department of Mineral Resources spokeswoman Alison Ritter told The Bismarck Tribune (https://bit.ly/2pcRbHw ).
Department officials say the work could help find ways to clean up future spills of brine, which accounts for a third of all spills from oil and gas activity, according to state health department records. The wastewater is often much saltier than the oceans and kills nearly all vegetation it touches.
The research will be two-pronged. Researchers will first look for the best solution with underlying drain tiles and water to strain the salts and properly dispose of the fluid. The second part of the project will study the use of salt-tolerant grasses and soil amendments to grow plants that potentially draw some salt from the soil and help prevent erosion.
“We’ll definitely find out and learn what we can use with other salt remediation,” said Cody VanderBusch, the department’s reclamation specialist. “If we can get those (pits) cleaned up, there’s no reason to not get a spill cleaned up nowadays.”
Spills recorded in North Dakota have ranged from a few barrels to the state’s largest, a 3 million gallon spill in 2015 from a flow line owned by Summit Midstream. The overflow entered Blackwater Creek and the Missouri River near Williston, and it is still in remediation.
About a million barrels of brine are pumped to the surface daily as part of the Oil and Gas Division’s reclamation efforts. Current protocol requires that it be trucked or piped to deep injection wells.
“It’s quick but expensive,” said Bill Suess, spill investigator for the state Health Department. “You have to find a place for the contaminated soil to go and find replacement soil that’s similar. It can be tough.”
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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, https://www.bismarcktribune.com
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