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  1. Andi
    January 10, 2012 • 8:25 am

    This story makes me sick. Thank you for writing about it, because we sure don’t hear about this from anyone else. I wish more people cared about the impact oil development is having on our friends and neighbors. I’m not saying oil development is all bad, but you can’t ignore this!

  2. NoDak No-No
    January 11, 2012 • 12:02 pm

    North Dakota has been bought and paid for by Big Oil. Shame on everyone involved. The wildlife, way of life, domestic animals, and any other forms of life are gone forever. Oil and gas extraction was bad enough on our environment but with hydraulic fracturing, there is no reclamation possible. The energy return on energy invested using hydraulic fracturing is a house of cards. Educate yourselves, people. Wells can be hydro-fractured many times legally. This is a disaster on so many levels it’s not possible to comprehend. Ms. Winter, thank you for your hard work. This same information can be found in many non-mainstream-media sources. Schilkes, may you find your road to the sun. Away from North Dakota. Anyone downstream of the Missouri River, look out below!

  3. Rob Port
    January 11, 2012 • 1:47 pm

    The woman in this story is the same one who, according to Mr. Helms, wouldn’t allow state inspectors on her property to verify her claims.

    She is not at all credible, and shame on this reporter for not getting the full story. This sort of anecdotal reporting doesn’t do anyone any good.

  4. robert
    January 11, 2012 • 2:55 pm

    you people who frack for oil more then likely dont live on or near a frack site so you mindless people don’t care if animales get sick and are now dieing birds are landing in this waste from fracking how stupid can you be really why don’t u do the right thing and cover these pits with nets ooo wait that would cast you money thats right a billon dollar industry about a thousand dollar net and your own guys can put it up heartless asses

  5. Senator Tim Mathern
    January 11, 2012 • 3:32 pm

    Thanks for the documentation of of our times with this story.

    Whenever I meet with folks from western North Dakota I encourage them to be assertive about how the land and people are treated and to demand that any infrastructure that is built be only of the highest quality so it lasts for hundreds of years. Some day when the oil is gone, I want a place left that will support other activities and be a wonderful place for people and animals to live in. I do not want the west to become the abandoned industrial park of the state.

    Senator Tim Mathern

  6. Welcome to boomtown: oil production raises health concerns – Great Plains Examiner | ehealthjournal.net
    January 11, 2012 • 5:53 pm

    [...] Great Plains Examiner [...]

  7. Douglas J. Bender
    January 11, 2012 • 7:28 pm

    Interesting story. It’s often hard to tell what the truth is without independent corroboration, but it certainly sounds as if the farming family have suffered due to improper or poorly-overseen oil-drilling by Oasis Petroleum (only “one gallon of fluid” released?…riiiiiiiiight).

    Anyway, I am from, and currently living in, Elkhart, Indiana, and am unemployed and looking for work. (A situation I have been in for far too long.) I recently looked into oil-field work in western North Dakota, especially in the Williston and Dickinson areas, and I think contacted Oasis Petroleum about a job. I would like to find a decent and honest and responsible employer. Is there any resource that might have a list of such oil-field companies in North Dakota (or Oklahoma…or Texas…)? Or, if not, could someone with the time and motivation and ability create such a list? It would be a great boon for people like me, who are looking for honest work.

    • Todd
      January 13, 2012 • 12:55 am

      I’m not sure about the decent and honest employer part, but for jobs in the “oil patch” you might contact Job Service North Dakota(state employment agency).

      You might also contact the Chamber of Commerce in “oil patch” towns like Williston, Dickinson, Watford City, Stanley, Killdeer, New Town, etc.

      Lack of housing is a HUGE problem. I’m sure you have read of people looking for work in ND and finding jobs but living in their cars, campers, etc. Good luck!

      • Kapsacrazy
        February 27, 2012 • 7:05 am

        Thank you for snarihg this piece, it’s definitely an eye-opener. Living in cities and a populated suburbia doesn’t truly show the impact of the recession, but now I know what it is doing, or can do, to small towns. It certainly is a question of ethics this story reminds me a bit of the Dr. Suess story The Lorax, in which a get-rich-quick idea led to the destruction of a beautiful forest of trees. I do believe the local government should be looking for ways to improve their low economy status, but also needs to protect their home and store owners in the process. The oil companies are simply doing their job, and money is obviously scarce for these people. But the duties of non-injury seem to be neglected here, and I feel that is unacceptable. Especially unethical is to lie about the housing situation, completely throwing away any duties of fidelity to the people that come to find jobs. If the locals wanted to boost their economy, that’s one thing. But not being able to support the townies that have been there from the start, is bad use of power and disheartening. They may not be able to prevent the litter of people that choose to live and sleep in their cars, but they can prevent them from harming the safe, inviting, positive atmosphere that people used to feel when they entered the small North Dakota town.

  8. Todd
    January 11, 2012 • 8:54 pm

    Great article! How many billions of dollars is it worth to the state to sacrifice 1/3 to 1/2 of the state to this kind of destruction. IMO, you can’t put a price tag on what’s being done to destroy western North Dakota.

    And to Mr. Port, I don’t know either Mr. Helms or Mrs. Schilke, but I know that Helms is a schill for the oil industry he’s supposed to regulate. Sounds like you are, too. And why would Mrs. Schilke make this stuff up? And spend thousands of dollars trying to find out what’s going? Including medical bills that seem to point at some environmental reason for her problems.

    • Crtrdr
      January 18, 2012 • 8:00 am

      Todd, Lynn Helms is a past employer of Hess Oil.

  9. ND Rancher
    January 12, 2012 • 2:39 pm

    Where is our ND Agriculture Commissioner Mr Goehring? it is his job to protect the agriculture community in North Dakota not the oil companies. 22 dead cattle and no action taken by the ag dept? We have a bigger problem within this state then we realize. I think it is time our officials start answering to the tax payers and not Harold Hamm.

  10. It is fracking intense
    January 13, 2012 • 9:38 pm

    [...] North Dakota is just like the rest of us! Welcome to boomtown: oil production raises health concerns [...]

  11. Welcome to boomtown: oil production raises health concerns | Oklahoma Laws
    January 27, 2012 • 8:18 am

    [...] Welcome to boomtown: oil production raises health concerns Welcome to boomtown: oil production raises health concerns But for a landowner dealing with Big Oil, it can be an uphill battle: Most oil and gas lawyers in the state have been hired by energy companies. Braaten's law firm originally focused on agricultural law but expanded its practice because of heavy demand … Read more on Great Plains Examiner [...]

  12. David
    January 29, 2012 • 10:06 pm

    Ignorance is bliss. And this article is complete bliss. I wounder where these people were at when the mineral rights were purchased, oh ya, nowhere to be found. Glad you wasted money on your dream. That’s what happens when you live on reaction. By the way. What do you heat you house with when its 60 below zero.

  13. List of the Harmed Updated – share your story ! | Arlington TX Barnett Shale Blogger
    June 24, 2012 • 5:38 pm

    [...] 12. Steve and Jacki Schilke Location: Williston Basin, ND Gas Facility: Oasis gas wells Exposure: Water- magnesium, manganese, boron and strontium and sulfates; air – benzene, methane, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene and zylene Symptoms: Lightheadedness, dizzy and trouble breathing, can’t walk Symptoms (animal): Dogs and cows sick, death http://greatplainsexaminer.com/2012/01/10/welcome-to-boomtown-oil-production-raises-health-conce… [...]

  14. NEWS | Earth Tribe
    September 1, 2012 • 3:54 am

    [...] Oil production raises health concerns Steve and Jacki Schilke spent six years searching for their dream home, a 160-acre ranch here in northwestern North Dakota. It wasn’t much to see – an old farmhouse, a few rundown outbuildings and a slice of prairie. But for the Schilkes, it was a chance to return to country life. But trouble was in store. Categories: NEWS – Tags: Bill Mckibben, climate change, oil and gas industry [...]

  15. List of the Harmed – Updated as of March 20th, 2013 – Support the legal action to stop Shale Gas in NB
    March 24, 2013 • 9:20 am

    [...] 12. Steve and Jacki Schilke Location: Williston Basin, ND Gas Facility: Oasis gas wells Exposure: Water- magnesium, manganese, boron and strontium and sulfates; air – benzene, methane, chloroform, butane, propane, toluene and zylene Symptoms: Lightheadedness, dizzy and trouble breathing, at times can’t walk without  cane Symptoms (animal): Dogs and cows sick, death http://greatplainsexaminer.com/2012/01/10/welcome-to-boomtown-oil-production-raises-health-conce… [...]

  16. A Deadly Power Surge « Humboldt County Democrats
    July 13, 2013 • 1:22 pm

    [...] oil and gas drilling craze known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. As The Nation magazine and the Great Plains Examiner reported last year, Oasis Petroleum started fracking on land three miles from her ranch in 2010. [...]

  17. A Deadly Power Surge « Nevada Rural Democratic Caucus
    July 13, 2013 • 1:23 pm

    [...] oil and gas drilling craze known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. As The Nation magazine and the Great Plains Examiner reported last year, Oasis Petroleum started fracking on land three miles from her ranch in 2010. [...]

  18. Fracking: A Deadly Power Surge - Waking Times : Waking Times
    July 15, 2013 • 10:04 am

    [...] and gas drilling craze known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. As The Nation magazine and the Great Plains Examiner reported last year, Oasis Petroleum started fracking on land three miles from her ranch in 2010. [...]

  19. Conspiracy News! | FRACKING: A Deadly Power Surge
    July 16, 2013 • 5:14 am

    [...] and gas drilling craze known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. As The Nation magazine and the Great Plains Examiner reported last year, Oasis Petroleum started fracking on land three miles from her ranch in 2010. [...]

  20. FRACKING: A Deadly Power Surge « Document The Truth
    July 16, 2013 • 5:32 am

    [...] and gas drilling craze known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. As The Nation magazine and the Great Plains Examiner reported last year, Oasis Petroleum started fracking on land three miles from her ranch in 2010. [...]

  21. Terri
    September 5, 2013 • 8:48 pm

    I would just like to say a few words that could help many that is working in the oil fields, my husband went to ND to drive a crude oil truck and left a very healthy man and today he is lucky he can make it through the day without falling, he has memory issues, lots of pain, dizziness, paralysis and many other symptoms. It only effects his left side and it took about a year to find a doctor that could even give us a diagnosis and start some treatment to maybe help him, which the treatment has helped tremendously but his brain damage will never cure to the point he can live a half way decent life. I have researched this when he had every test run on him and they all came back normal, we went to Chicago to a neurologist and since it had been longer than 48 hrs since exposure all his test and blood work is normal. So when we finally found the doctor in California that specializes in this field and also has treats many from all over the world for Ancient Orange the toxic poisoning they brought home from Viet Nam so we made a trip from Missouri to California to this doctor to seek help, he does a totally different testing than you have in a medical facility and it is very effective. I just would like to let anyone that has had any of these symptoms and want to have more information on how to get help, please do because the sooner you can started getting treatment the more likely you can totally overcome this. It has not been a pleasant rode to travel with him and don’t wish this on anyone. My email address is please feel free to contact me.


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