Oil Boom Towns Struggle to Adapt

            In 1995, the US Geological Survey published a report estimating that there were 150 million barrels of oil “technically recoverable” from the Bakken Shale formation, a rock unit covering around 200,000 square miles of land in Montana, North Dakota, and parts of Canada.  Because of rapid technological advances in surveying and extraction procedures, the estimate as of March 2012 now hovers around 24 billion barrels.  News of so much extractable oil has sent major US Energy companies racing to small towns near the formation to set up camp and get a piece of the profits, bringing with them a whole new set of challenges for local economies.

     

           Williston, North Dakota recorded a population of about 10,000 people from the 1960’s until 2000.   Like countless other towns in the region, Williston’s economy was based primarily around agriculture, that is until the mid 2000’s when major oil companies started eyeing North Dakota and the Bakken Formation for development.  Today, official estimates put the population level at 20 or even 30 thousand, comprised of workers from around the country coming for jobs where starting pay can surpass $100,000.

            

            The large number of workers have made Williston one of the top oil-producing sites in the United States in terms of output, close to surpassing Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, the historical top-dog in domestic output.  This has brought big money, as well as unprecedented amounts of stress, to the once sleepy farm town. 

In just the past two years the Williston school district has dealt with 480 new students, a 22 percent overall increase.  This may not seem extraordinary, but the superintendent Viola Lafontaine notes that the increase is equivalent to adding “a whole elementary school.”  Even more, Lafontaine expects 1,200 more new students in the coming year. 

Because of a lack in available housing, oil workers used to sleep in their cars in the local Wal-Mart parking lot, which eventually evolved into a neighborhood of trailers and RV’s until management kicked everyone out.  There is finally some new housing going up, but demand is so high that workers can expect to pay $2000 a month for a small one bedroom apartment, that is if the they can find a lease.  Most new apartment complexes are entirely leased months before planned completion.

Williston’s economy might appear strong from the outside (it boasts a 0.8% unemployment rate), however many are concerned that the percentage of oil-revenues major companies are required to give to local economies is not keeping up with the explosion in economic demand.  Williston is a town built for 10,000 local residents, not 20,000 newcomers who now require new streets, sewer facilities, water-treatment plants, schools, housing etc.  Many locals, like Lafontaine, are fighting for more state aid for North Dakota’s booming oil-producing region, but they’ll need significantly more funds than they’re currently allocated to keep up with the soaring population levels and production rates found in towns around the Bakken Formation.

-Harper Coulson