Give the Local Boy a Title/Pay Him to Lie

As with government, media and court systems local workers and residents are also caught up in the oil & gas game. As the old saying goes "money changes everything" including peoples values on right & wrong. I personally know several locals, born and raised in the area that now have "positions" with out of state  oil & gas companies that are a prime example of this. The locals have worked in the industry for years through the good and bad, at times have not had a "pot to piss in" and are now swimming in cash thanks to oil & gas. Everyone needs a job, and has to feed their family, but at the expense of peoples lives? The local boy has stomped jugs, shoveled mud and done all the crap work for years and along comes a company that will offer big bucks and little work in exchange for their local ties to the community. Oil & gas companies know who these persons are and can pick them out in a line-up. Qualifications for the job are the last thing necessary, wave a little "green" under their nose and they become puppets to the industry.  The locals are used to gain trust in the community, open doors to access land and water, and worth every penny they are paid in the oil & gas game.  The title they have been given gives them a feeling of worth and position among their friends and fellow workers and they do not realize they have been "bought" just a pawn, someone to do the dirty work and save face for the company. Their job requires them to lie on reports, lie to landowners, lie to workers and in return they can buy a new pickup they couldn't before.  He has sold his soul, lost the trust of local residents and landowners and people he has known for years, but most important now has a bank account with money in it, something he has never had before. This type of person has little education, and obviously little to no conscience and base life and self worth on money, oil & gas companies "ideal" employee.  When the "boom is bust" they are dropped like a dime, without a second thought, but the community will remember what they have done to their land and lives and are very unforgiving for the lies they have told.

Safety Alert : Workers in Bakken Oilfield

With the recent explosion of a drilling rig near Beach, and numerous other explosions and fires in the past year, toxic and explosive gases have become an obvious threat. The dirty little "secret" of the ND Health Dept, ND  Oil & Gas and the oil companies is becoming very dangerous. I have never been to orientation for employment for any oilfield positions, but I can imagine if you were made aware of the gases you are exposed to on a daily basis, you would probably go back to your home state and work at Taco Johns. The lies of the leaders of the state of North Dakota are becoming more obvious by the days, pay offs and greed of the Oil companies involved are common knowledge. We are all casualty numbers figured on their profit charts. OSHA of course is there to protect you, but you first must know what is going on for them to help. If you take 5 minutes and read the following information if will make a life saving situation out of a corrupt lie. When strange health issues start from exposure, doctors have no starting point unless they know what the exposure is. Symptoms can be treated, with little success if exposure continues. Residents living in areas of oil & gas activity are exposed 24/7 with extreme health issues as a result, but without proper testing do not know what they are exposed to. The ND Health Dept refuses and have not given proper information to residents and workers alike, thus subjecting you to a very life threatening  situation.  Testing in the Bakken area have resulted in very horrifying results to what we are exposed to. Toxic, hazardous and carcinogenic gases such as Benzene, Xylene, Toluene, Chloroform, Methane, Propane and Butane to name just a few. There are of course the chemicals also released into the atmosphere from the drilling and fracking process. Knowing this information it comes to no surprise that a drilling rig would explode and threaten the lives of the workers. These gases are common for the Bakken and released in very high levels. The problem with the situation lies in the hands of the ND Health Dept, first they will not acknowledge that the gases exist for obvious reasons, danger and life threatening, if workers were told this, who would they get to come to ND and work? Second, the ND Health Dept is knowingly putting the residents lives in danger. Knowledge is the most powerful tool here, remember this information for future use when you end up in an emergency situation, it could save your life. Do your own research on the effects of these gases, contact OSHA, internet searches will also give you additional information. All these gases are explosive and over exposure can kill in moments, daily exposure will cause permanent damage to nervous system, immunity, blood, liver, and most important lungs and cancer.

Oil & Gas Code of Ethics

We lie, cheat, steal and trespass on private property. How dare you accuse us of attempted murder in a court of law, we have paid of the courts, government and law to allow us to do this. We own this world, we can destroy it and everything in it if we so desire.
You have forgotten, we won't need your oil & gas when you have killed us all off.

North Dakota Corruption

I have found through dealings with various ND State departments that there is a reason you will find North Dakota on the list of being the most corrupt state in the United States.  Hoeven and Company have set up the state of North Dakota to line their pockets and totally destroy our natural resources and the health of the residents without a second thought.  The ND State Health Department and The ND Oil and Gas work hand in hand to exploit the process.  The ND Oil and Gas allows industry to continue with very little supervision and the ND Health Department REFUSES to monitor air quality and adjusts water reports to meet their needs.  How many years has this been happening?   I have found that I am not the only landowner in the state of ND with contaminated water and health and livestock issues, this is unfortunate but will finally bring this info to public attention.  The time has come that the residents of North Dakota know the effect and serious damage corruption within state government will do.  There has for some time been a high asthma and cancer rate in the state of ND, which seems odd considering the fact that a rural lifestyle should be much healthier. Facts are that our own ND state have allowed industry to destroy our air and water with deadly toxins that are causing this.  Pay offs from companies in the right pocket will create laws that allow extreme contamination that put health at risk.  Some time back we all heard of the ND Game and Fish report that was strangely  hidden when John Hoeven was Governor, and the negative effects the Oil Industry would have on our wildlife.  This is a very good example of how unimportant health and welfare are in our ND State Departments. I would imagine the report about the effects on human life are still on someone's desk somewhere yet to surface. In the state of ND you are warned not to eat the fish caught in our lakes and rivers because of high mercury levels and high levels of hexavalent chromium has been found in groundwater from coal contamination. What reports will be next, with the use of things like urea, formaldehyde, diesel and other carcinogenic chemicals in fracking.  One thing is for sure, you can bet the the ND State Health Department is NOT looking out for your health and welfare and doing proper testing to protect us. You can begin your own research by requesting public reports, good luck with this, it seems to be a problem with the ND State Health Department to release public information. The United States does have a Freedom of Information Act to give the public access to these reports, I guess ND has not gotten that memo yet.

Cancer and the Oil Field

After reviewing a comment left on one of my postings, the subject of cancer has been brought up.  Few people think about this side of the "get rich quick" oil field employment.  The sad reality of it all is that oil field exposure comes with many health problems both to the workers and the innocent people who choose not to have any association with the industry.  Living in the center of the industrial mess, I see many health hazards from buckets and barrels of toxic chemicals laying along side the road unattended to extreme high readings of toxic gases and chemicals released into the air that we breath.  All of this comes with a price to pay, the workers seem to think the money is worth the risk, the people, livestock and wildlife that are forced into exposure with no choice are just "unfortunate".  I have noticed that none of the 350+ trucks that run up and down the roads daily have no children in them, of course not, this exposure is not good for children, and also against the law, but it is okay for a child playing in their backyard to be exposed to toxic waste 24/7???   Isn't it strange how money changes everything, from health guidelines and standards to child endangerment.  So by choice the oil field workers chance of dying of cancer is extremely high and hopefully has saved some of those "big paychecks" or invested in a good insurance policy so his family will survive without him and pay the medical bills when he is gone without selling their home and all of their belongings.  And not by choice innocent people will also die.
Based on well-documented associations between occupational exposures and cancer, it is estimated that approximately 20,000 cancer deaths and 40,000 new cases of cancer each year in the U.S. are attributable to occupation.
Exposure to arsenic is suspected as the cause of many types of cancer. The types of cancers that are found in workers that are regularly exposed to arsenic are: skin cancer, scrotal cancer, liver cancer, cancer of the lymphatic system, and lung cancer.
These are just a few of the many facts on petroleum exposure and health risks.
Interesting that Texas is on the list as one of the top oil producing states and also has an extensive list of cancer treatment centers in their state.  Now North Dakota openly brags about being on this list also, but with few to no cancer treatment centers, so does that mean we all have to travel to Texas for treatment?  or does that mean we just die without treatment?  Why would anyone in North Dakota think that they are beyond getting cancer because of exposure from oilfield toxins? North Dakota probably rates number one for denial and failure to educate employees and public on environmental exposure to petroleum hazards. The North Dakota Health Department has totally failed in this department and worse than that has put many lives at risk.

Water Water Everywhere and Not a Thing to Drink

Unfortunately this statement does not mean there is no cold beer in the fridge.  Imagine if you can to live in the year 2011 without one usable drop of water in your household, or groundwater on your land.  It is hard to contemplate just how many daily tasks involve the use of water, until you no longer have water.  From the simple things like having clean dishes and taking a shower to keeping your livestock alive.  The average cow drinks 15 to 20 gallons of water daily, so when a person owning livestock purchases land, water is obviously a very important part of this decision.  Imagine now finding land in North Dakota with clean groundwater that runs year around for cattle, a golden opportunity.  Worse yet is the fact that when this water is contaminated with toxic chemicals, livestock has to be kept away from it, and not an easy thing to do when the grass that you graze is next to the toxic water.  How do you stop a creek or stream from running?  Now you have not only lost your water, but also your feed for livestock.  You now own a hazardous and totally useless piece of property, over something as simple as water.  Imagine spending three hours every day, seven days a week just hauling water to keep livestock alive and your household running.  Clean laundry, and a hot shower after a hard days work become a luxury.  Imagine taking a shower in water full of toxic chemicals that actually eats holes into you skin, and leaves sores and blisters.  Water full of toxic chemicals that create harmful gases that burn your lungs and have hazardous health effects when heated.  We don't imagine this at our home, we live it, every day, and it is 2011.

Oil Field Contamination and What We Eat

The last thing on one's mind when they cut into a thick juicy steak fresh off the BBQ grill is oil field contamination.  Wrong, not in any state that has both oilfield activity, farming and ranching.  As more and more water becomes toxic from oilfield and fracking, also is the ground that feeds livestock and grows crops.  The population is not only being killed by the air contamination full of toxic gases and chemicals but also through our food supply.  The farmers and ranchers of North Dakota have for years taken  pride in the products they market as some of the finest in the US.  Beef, pork, dairy, alfalfa, wheat, durum, corn, oats, peas, lentils, sunflowers, safflower,canola, sugar even barley for beer and others I'm sure I have left out. The point is that all food groups are effected by this, so what will be left to eat that will be SAFE?  Even the hunting and fishing industry in North Dakota will not be safe, venison, antelope, elk, pheasant, duck, goose, turkey, and fish will also be toxic for consumption.  Will we next have to rely on a country without contamination to also feed us? This information taken from a study entitled Health hazards associated with animal feed : Dioxins have also been known to contaminate forage crops grown in the vicinity of certain industrial processes.  It has been postulated that most human exposure to dioxins is as a result of foods of animal origin, which in turn may arise from the presence of dioxins in animal feeds. Dioxins accumulate in fat to a high degree, so even extremely low levels of dioxin in feed can become significant over the lifetime of an animal and result in unacceptable residues in human foods such as meat, milk, and eggs. How many spills and releases of toxic chemicals from fires have occurred  in North Dakota in just the past month that we have been told about, and how many more that we do not know about? How badly effected and contaminated is our food already? The latest report on chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing just released by the Committee on Energy came up with some very frightening facts that the ND Oil and Gas and ND Health Dept have allowed to happen within the state of North Dakota. These toxic, hazardous chemicals were used from 2005-2009,  how far and deep have they migrated into water and soil? What happened to the famous quote from then Gov John Hoeven  "we can regulate fracturing very well, thank you very much.” Something to think about when you sit down for dinner tonight, weather it be pasta or pork chops you are not safe knowing it may have been a North Dakota grown product.