Here.
NYTs on Fracking Controversy at Blackfeet
Here.
fracking
Water Contamination and Fracking in Wyoming
Tonight’s CBS Evening News included a story on fracking in Pavillion, Wyoming that can be found here.
The NPR story on the subject can be found here. An excerpt:
People in Pavillion, located on the Wind River Indian Reservation, contacted the EPA three years ago, complaining that their water smelled and tasted bad.
The agency started sampling drinking water wells in 2009 and found low levels of methane and other hydrocarbons in most of those wells. Although the levels did not exceed drinking water standards in most cases, the agency recommended that people get other sources of water for drinking and cooking, Encana, the company which drilled the wells, started providing water. The company says it provides drinking water to 21 households at a cost of about $1,500 per month.
The agency was concerned that higher concentrations of some of the chemicals might be lurking elsewhere in the aquifer.
So EPA researchers drilled two wells and found lots of chemicals, which could be tied to drilling. For example, they found levels of benzene, which is known to cause cancer and other health effects, far higher than safe drinking water standards. The presence of other chemicals — like synthetic glycols and alcohols — persuaded them that the contamination was likely coming from fracking.
Finally, a recent post about fracking can be found here.
Fracking, Tribal Sovereignty, the Montana Test, and the Turtle Mountain Band
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians recently passed a resolution banning fracking on reservation lands. Fracking is incredibly dangerous to the environment (and if Elizabeth Kolbert is writing about it, you can be sure it’s worse than that).
So imagine a scenario where a tribe (like Turtle Mountain) bans fracking, but an oil extraction company purchases fee land within the reservation boundaries and begins fracking. Is this going to pass the Montana test, assuming no written consent under Montana 1? So does it meet the political integrity, economic security, and health/welfare subjectivity of Montana 2? It seems like it must, if this news coverage is to be believed:
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.
So back to Montana 2. Assuming the above conditions, and a court concludes that Montana 2 is met, and tribal jurisdiction over these hypothetical nonmembers is present, what are the limitations on tribal jurisdiction? Could a tribe simply enjoin the operation (a regulatory/judicial taking)? Could a tribe exercise the power of eminent domain? Seems like these are questions tribes should be asking.
Turtle Talk 