Thoughts on the North Dakota pipeline

With the snow we have gotten and looking at the forecast for next week this all of a sudden has gotten very dangerous for the protesters. 
 
With the snow we have gotten and looking at the forecast for next week this all of a sudden has gotten very dangerous for the protesters. 
Don't worry I heard donations will be rolling in to help from Hillary. ;) But on a serious note, I bet they do get some sort of funding. It may deter some, but it's not going anywhere soon. I think your going to see it get larger and larger.

 
Wait lol, is that a building built built in the background? Guess they are planning to stay awhile.
 
Well this is interesting...

What this means is still unclear, but the pipeline company agreed to start shipping oil by January 1, 2017. If they miss that, not only do they have to pay penalties, but oil shippers and producers can cancel their contracts. Dakota Access will be subject to suit for contract breach and damages, and the longer it draws out, the less economic sense it makes to use the pipeline at all.
 
Dem oil pipeline spills.

BELFIELD, N.D. — Belle Fourche Pipeline Co. estimates that 130,200 gallons of oil spilled into a tributary of the Little Missouri River last week and another 46,200 gallons leaked into a hillside, the North Dakota Department of Health said Monday, Dec. 12
Source

 
This is pretty close to my Uncle's land down in the Badlands north of Medora. I talked to my cousin about it last week, and my brother (taking over the ranch I grew up on north of Belfield) who works for an oil company in the area. My cousin said that luckily the ground had a good freeze to it so not much ground contamination took place as far as they've been able to gather so far. He said they have about 60-100 people out there daily working to clean up the spill. Interestingly enough, something similar happened on my uncle's land back in the 80's during the last boom. After the clean up he says the land was even better, likely because they brought in top soil and such that wasn't there before. The Badlands have their name for a reason. 

I would like to note that this is why you need to hire local people to maintain and watch these pipelines. If the guy responsible for these wells was doing his job and checking his sites like he should have there is no possible way 176,000 gallons of oil spills. Think about when this happened. Right when the deep freeze hit a couple weeks ago. This company probably hired some guy from Texas who is incapable of handling cold weather and he didn't leave his house or truck for a week. That's why this happened. You have someone who is just collecting a paycheck, not someone who actually cares about the area. 

 
You have someone who is just collecting a paycheck, not someone who actually cares about the area. 
This is fairly common with an worker these days local or not, there is no pride, quality or care in work anymore. People work most jobs just to collect a paycheck. Can't really blame it one someone from not being local. In fact over there anymore most of the locals have left anyways.

 
This is pretty close to my Uncle's land down in the Badlands north of Medora. I talked to my cousin about it last week, and my brother (taking over the ranch I grew up on north of Belfield) who works for an oil company in the area. My cousin said that luckily the ground had a good freeze to it so not much ground contamination took place as far as they've been able to gather so far. He said they have about 60-100 people out there daily working to clean up the spill. Interestingly enough, something similar happened on my uncle's land back in the 80's during the last boom. After the clean up he says the land was even better, likely because they brought in top soil and such that wasn't there before. The Badlands have their name for a reason. 
I would like to note that this is why you need to hire local people to maintain and watch these pipelines. If the guy responsible for these wells was doing his job and checking his sites like he should have there is no possible way 176,000 gallons of oil spills. Think about when this happened. Right when the deep freeze hit a couple weeks ago. This company probably hired some guy from Texas who is incapable of handling cold weather and he didn't leave his house or truck for a week. That's why this happened. You have someone who is just collecting a paycheck, not someone who actually cares about the area. 
I think my brother can chime in with his thoughts since he is working for an oil company, IT though, but knows all about a big holding company buying local smaller companies and trying to run them despite either not locally managing them well or not having the most oil field and oil industry experience. They just want to make money without a care for safety, enough man power, properly well trained workers and all that.

 
I'd also like to say something about how this #noDAPL thing has all went down. The argument the #noDAPL people have made is that this is just another example of Native Americans being walked over by the rich white men. I disagree. If anyone is exploiting Native Americans in this case its the environmental lobby and the protesters on the #noDAPL side. Just like liberals do across the spectrum they use identity politics to make their arguments and get their way. They paint the other side as racists, and bigots, and "phobes" to get their way. 

The "water is life" slogan, which is powerful and correct, was actually developed by a couple young Native Americans who came up with the slogan, not just for the reservation, but everyone downstream. To them it wasn't a whites vs. natives thing. Liberals have mastered the exploitation of minority groups and they did it again this time. 

 
I think my brother can chime in with his thoughts since he is working for an oil company, IT though, but knows all about a big holding company buying local smaller companies and trying to run them despite either not locally managing them well or not having the most oil field and oil industry experience. They just want to make money without a care for safety, enough man power, properly well trained workers and all that.
C Pav, my brother basically said as much was the case here. Company A, which takes the environment seriously, sold to Company B, which doesn't take it as seriously. 

 
What was diameter or the pipe that spilled in Belfield, compared to the one they wanted by Bismark? What I mean is look at the mess a small little pipe made, can you imagine a larger diameter one that would have more pressure behind it and more fluid flwoing?
 
I did some research. The one in Belfield was 6 inches diameter.

The one in Bismark was The 30 inches in diameter.

 
With one swipe of the pen, Trump is doing an executive order on reinstating the progression of this and the Keystone pipelines.
 
Here we go again though, I am sure the protestors are all gearing up again. Plus summer is coming.

Environmental activists vowed to keep fighting the projects. “This is not a done deal,” Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, the group that led the protests against the Keystone pipeline, said in a statement. “The last time around, TransCanada was so confident they literally mowed the strip where they planned to build the pipeline, before people power stopped them. People will mobilize again.”
 
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