Oil companies cited for environmental incidents on Fort Berthold Reservation

NEW TOWN The Three Affiliated Tribes’ Energy Department has issued a total of $80,000 in environmental citations in recent weeks to three oil-field-related companies working on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

The most recent citation was for $25,000 to JNS Logistics of Culbertson, Mont., for illegal dumping on private land at a site called the Sage Pond in the Mandaree area. The incident occurred on Jan. 30 and the citation was issued this week.

Carson Hood Jr., interim administrator of the tribal Energy Department, said oil-field companies are policing each other to prevent problems. When the Sage Pond incident occurred, he said the driver of another company working on the reservation noticed a truck backed up to the pond just off BIA Road 10 in the Mandaree area and the truck was dumping a substance into the pond. The other company’s driver drove his truck up to the pond and blocked the road, preventing the truck doing the dumping from leaving the area and waited there until tribal officials could reach the area.

Although it was determined later that the truck was emptying fresh water into the pond, Hood said the manner in which the water was improperly discharged was illegal, according to the tribal Environmental Enforcement Codes.

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