News
Nov 28, 2011
Blackfeet members concerned about contamination by injection drilling technique
Written by
KARL PUCKETT
A drilling platform rises on the Blackfeet Reservation with Chief Mountain and Glacier Park in the background. TONYBYNUM.COM
Exploration companies are injecting large volumes of water, sand and chemicals into rock formations up to a mile beneath the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in attempts to loosen embedded oil — sometimes using more than a million gallons of fluid per well.
State, tribal and federal regulators of oil development say there has never been an instance of the practice — called hydraulic fracturing — contaminating groundwater in Montana.
Yet Jack Gladstone, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe and a well-known singer and songwriter, is worried that “fracking” could taint the tribe’s “clean, fresh, cold water.”
He supports more disclosure of the chemicals used in the frack jobs, which he described as an “uncontrolled experiment.”
“And we will live with the consequences of our actions,” Gladstone said.
Potential impacts to drinking water associated with hydraulic fracturing are coming under increased scrutiny nationwide as the federal Environmental Protection Agency begins a study at 350 oil and gas wells in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Texas and Colorado.
Locally, prominent residents of the reservation, where two dozen oil wells with names such as “Tribal Buffalo Jump” and “Tribal Sacred Pipe” have been fracked since 2009, are beginning to raise concerns.
The uptick in exploration pits the promise of more jobs and revenue on the reservation against concerns about potential long-term effects of the development on water resources and habitat, according to tribal members.
“There have been concerns since we started drilling wells,” said Grinnell Day Chief, the tribe’s director of oil and gas. “All we can tell people is we’ve never had an issue as far as groundwater being contaminated.”
Three oil companies — Anschutz Exploration Corp. of Denver, and Rosetta Resources and Newfield Exploration Co., both of Houston — are leading the oil and gas exploration on the reservation.
Officials with Anschutz and Rosetta who were contacted for this story declined to comment.
Exploration companies are using microseismic technology allowing real-time monitoring of the frack jobs to ensure water isn’t threatened, Day Chief said….
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