Impacts of Oil Drilling & Production

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Students and staff gathering to hear the impacts of oil drilling and production in North Dakota.

The fast paced industry and community growth are creating a number of concerns about emergency management in the state, and out of it.

One is rail safety as seen again this week in West Virginia when a train carrying Bakken oil derailed and exploded.

NDSU Faculty Advisor Carol Cwiak”You know if you ever experienced a major event, a major disaster, it sticks with you and it changes you. We want to avoid you to have to experience something like this.”

During the height of the boom, traffic on the roadways increased by 22 percent, and so did crashes.

According to the state’s department of transportation, in 2013 one person died in a crash every 2 1/2 days.

The group has a suggestion.

NDSU Grad Student Thomas Webb said,”We recommend a study be conducted to identify where the largest volume of incident occur… so resources can be directed to those jurisdictions.”

The seven students have been researching since this past fall semester and want lawmakers to take a closer look at their finds.

Paul Mott who is one of the NDSU researcher said, “The problem is something that you might not thought of before or may you thought you understood it or there’s something new you need to take a look at but more importantly it doesn’t do any good to look at a problem unless you do something about it.”

Student had a full 21 recommendations to help with the multiple problems brought by oil, they have already sent their entire report to the legislature.