What I Hate About the Boom
How can pouring 80,000+ gallons of chemicals (containing know carcinogens) into one well be safe for drinking water? It was alarming to learn that this is what fracking is all about. The people of ND are going to pay big time for allowing thousands of wells to be fracked in western ND. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa are working hard to protect our water from this horrid process. Our government passed a law banning fracking on our reservation in November 2011. Our ancestors told us to be diligent and always protect our water because someday we will have the only drinking water that is not contaminated. Somehow, they knew fracking was coming. The sad part in all of this is that the big oil companies are the only ones who will benefit from ND's oil. The people who think they are benefiting now will pay with their health, and the contamination of their homeland will ruin their quality of life. The people who contaminate our land and water don't live here and don't drink our water. They live in their resort homes far away. It is time for our legislators to take control of the oil boom. Take it out of the hands of the governor and the Industrial Commission and put laws in place that protect the people. This is not a political opportunity for a few. It is a crises for all of us, if we continue to allow the process to put our future in jeopardy.