Below, you’ll find real people telling their stories of living in the shadow of oil and gas development. From air pollution by methane leaks and flares to contaminated groundwater, from farmland destroyed by brine spills to health effects like asthma and cancer—all told by the people experiencing them.
“One of the things my wife last year, had her fight with breast cancer. One of the things that causes breast cancer is pollution. Now to find a direct tie to maybe that spill, or the constant flaring that goes on in the valley there’s every possibility that her cancer was caused by that pollution.”
“We’ve got a company coming in here now that wants to do that…they’re threatening that we either make peace with them, and accept their agreement for surface access to our ranch, or they’ll just sue and condemn their way in.”
“Right now, there’s about 1,500 oil and gas wells on the Fort Berthold Reservation. Many of those are flaring 24-7, which means that you can see gas flares in every direction you look.”
Residents of Battlement Mesa and Rifle, Colorado, are on the verge of seeing gas companies abandoning their wells and leaving taxpayers to clean up the…
Continue reading → Bonding Crisis Looms in Colorado as Gas Prices Tip Into the Red
Thirty years after faulty gas wells and unlined holding ponds began contaminating groundwater, residents of Pavillion, Wyoming, still can’t drink the water. Sue Spencer, a…
Continue reading → Lax Permitting, Poor Construction Lead to Groundwater Contamination
Joletta Bird Bear and Fort Berthold POWER Still Have a Long Way to Go to Get Clean Air on the Reservation. Flares danced all the…
Daryl and Christine Peterson have lost over $1 million in farmland value from produced water spills. On a bright July day, Daryl Peterson stood four…
Continue reading → North Dakota farmers fear more than just oil spills
Dawn Stein stood in her front yard, shaded by a canopy of rustling, century-old cottonwood trees. A well-manicured lawn surrounded her tidy white house. On…
Continue reading → Dawn Stein – Even Being Deaf Doesn’t Block Out the Noise of Drilling
“My name is Laura Grzanic. I live in Belfield, North Dakota. I’ve lived here for 31 years. In the past couple of years, Meridian Corp,…
