Fracking in the West

“Fracking in the West” illustrates the environmental, social and cultural impacts of fracking on Native and rural communities of the western United States.

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Vance Gillette, tribal member and environmental attorney, carries a bundle of silver sage (Artemesia cana) collected near the site of the summer 2014 Arrow pipeline spill which contaminated a drainage above Bear Den Bay on Lake Sakakawea with over a million gallons of fracking wastewater. Vance is collecting plants on the hills above the drainage. I assisted tribal leaders in documenting the impacts and collecting water samples for independent analysis. Gillette is family of the late Russell Gillette, who was forced by the Department of the Interior in 1953 to sign away over 130,000 acres of rich tribal agricultural bottomlands in the upper Missouri River valley prior to the construction of the Garrison Dam which fllooded much of Three Affiliated Tribe land.
The Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, established in 1978, is a route across the United States commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806. Part of the U.S. National Trails System, it runs 3,700 miles from Wood River, Illinois, to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. This image of Lewis & Clark pointing out over the northern plains was captured along Federal Hwy 2 near New Town, ND.
A farmer grabs the Dickinson Press from his mailbox in Keene, North Dakota. Over 400 vehicle passes a day in front of the farmhouse of this third-generation farmer mean the doors and windows of the home are always closed. There is concern about long-term health exposure to road dust, which includes residues of leaked fracking fluids. Magnesium chloride sprayed to control dust is problematic as well.
A wild horse lays killed by fracking-related traffic on Highway 23 at the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Pieces of broken plastic tail lens lay beside the bloodied body.
Just beyond the early 1900's homestead of Steve Jensen's grandmother in the foreground, where a few honeybee boxes are placed beside the old farmhouse and fields of durum wheat are still in production, lies the remediation site of the largest inland crude oil spill in United States history. Detected in late September 2013, some 20,600 barrels (865,000 gallons) of crude spilled onto farmland when an underground pipeline managed by Tesoro Logistics, Inc. ruptured. Days later, Mr. Jensen discovered the leak while working in one of those wheat fields. Most major pipelines in the U.S. are monitored by sensors that can detect minute changes in pressure that would indicate a break or leak. No flow-meter alarms or kill switches were in place. Photograph by Bruce Farnsworth with aerial support provided by Lighthawk.org.
On March 3, 2014, over 100 giant garbage bags of radioactive fracking filter socks were found dumped illegally in this abandoned auto repair shop in Noonan, North Dakota just 15 miles from the Canadian border. The Bakken oil fields produce 12-20 tons of radioactive waste each day and it is supposed to go to specially designed waste facilities. Independent operators take shortcuts; monitoring and enforcement is inadequate in the rural spaces. Currently, the North Dakota state health department is proposing to raise the permissible picocurie level at conventional landfills so that such waste can be dumped there.
Taking almost dragon-like form, an emergency flare rages on a private oil and gas installation leased near the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Methane is a major greenhouse gas contributor associated with the release of natural gas at oil wells and is a waste of natural resources and potential income for local communities. Despite efforts in the U.S. Congress, methane production is still unregulated.
Ground zero of the Aero Pipeline spill of July 2014 above a drainage in the Bear Den Bay region of Fort Berthold Indian Reservation above Lake Sakagawea (North Dakota). Over one million gallons of toxic fracking wastewater spilled from a pipeline a half-mile uphill from this scene. The tree has died here and was cut down by a contractor, mulched and spread over the sight to remove the band of dead vegetation visible in my aerial photographs taken two weeks prior just after the spill. Duke University graciously offered water testing kits for samples I collected with members of the Three Affiliated Tribes and those samples showed the footprint of fracking wastewater. Internal testing results of the pipeline company have not been released. The EPA is not on scene. Each state has the prerogative to assume oversight of federal regulations and the North Dakota state government relies on industry to report, monitor and remediate their own spills. The public records still lists the volume of this spill as zero gallons.
On this fracking well site near Sanish Bay on Lake Sakakawea, a mixture of sand, water and chemicals is injected at high pressures into layers of shale. The drilling is turned horizontally as "laterals" may extend for up to four miles horizontally gathering crude from under the lakebed. Round bales of hay are gathered in the field. Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota.
Boundary issues and conflicting land use are interpreted in this aerial photograph over the eastern edge of Teddy Roosevelt National Park, South Unit (TRNP-South). As the early morning sun grazes the land, a fence demarcating the park's eastern boundary is seen clearly at the left of this image. The sprawl of oil & gas development is now led by the fracking boom of North Dakota's Bakken region. In this view, several access roads radiate out, fragmenting the habitat, as wells approach the national park. Photograph by Bruce Farnsworth with aerial support provided by LightHawk
A wind turbine on one of two wind turbine farms in North Dakota, this one located near Minot. Photograph by Bruce Farnsworth with aerial support provided by Lighthawk.org.
Prayer flags posted by an elder of the Three Affiliated Tribes on top of Rainbow Butte, a sacred place now surrounded by fracking wells near Keene, North Dakota USA.
This fracking well site is labeled "Medicine Hole," appropriating the name of a nearby geographic feature when Native Americans fled cannonballs fired by the U.S. Army Cavalry General Sully who, in the late 1800's, set out on a campaign to exterminate the tribes in this area near Killdeer in western North Dakota. Continental Oil is one of the largest oil producers in the United States.
The red mineral known as “clinker,” formed from materials that were baked when lignite veins burned underground, is used for building road surfaces and well pads in fracking country.
Residents in fracking country complain about the loss of darkness with the advent of hydraulic fracturing large natural gas flares to vent drilling sites such as this one on the Fort Berthold Reservation of the Three Affiliated Tribes in western North Dakota.
This closeup shows the sheen of fracking wastewater in a small pool in Bear Den Creek, just days after a wastewater pipeline ruptured and sent approximately 3 million gallons of contaminated water into the drainage.
The late Richard "Tiny" Crowsheart, at a pump along the drainage for Bear Den Creek where the largest fracking wastewater spill occurred in the US, on tribal land in the Fort Berthold Reservation of the Three Affiliated Tribes. Almost 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater leaked from a pipeline into a creek that flows into the Missouri River near the water uptake for the Native community of Mandaree.
In this image, a farmer in North Dakota holds a photograph of her family's barn, taken when her father was alive. In this example of rephotography, the scene now shows two fracking wells installed and the barn has collapsed due to wood being taken from it by collectors.
Fracking well pad with several drilling heads and large storage tanks, all placed above a drainage, amid agricultural fields. The road-like path between two hay fields at the upper left of the image is actually the scar of a new fracking pipeline. Photograph by Bruce Farnsworth with aerial support provided by Lighthawk.org.
Lighthawk.org has provided photographer Bruce Farnsworth with volunteer pilots who have donated their planes, skills and time in several missions to support his documentary project Fracking in the West.
Fracking drilling operation on the banks of Lake Sakakawea, Missouri River in the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota. Photograph by Bruce Farnsworth with aerial support provided by Lighthawk.org.
In the center of this image is a fracking well site near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, USA. Photograph by Bruce Farnsworth with aerial support provided by Lighthawk.org.

Bruce Farnsworth

Bruce ​uses photography to connect conservation, education and human experience. It was during his PhD work in the northern plains -…

Topics
Environment
Sub Topics
Culture Energy Development Environmental Degradation
Regions
North America United States
Energy

About Fracking in the West

“Fracking in the West” is a documentary project by photographer Bruce Farnsworth that illustrates the environmental, social and cultural impacts of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) on Native and rural communities in the United States Northern Plains and Mountain West regions.