Mike Soraghan
Marathon’s Buffalo 34-12H well pad near Killdeer, N.D
Since 2010, four Montana natives have died under similar circumstances in the Bakken oil fields. All were found unconscious or already dead on steel catwalks above tanks of crude oil whose levels they were checking.
Trent Vigus, 30, of Glendive, originally of Butte, died at an XTO Energy well site near Lambert, Mont., on July 2, 2010.
Dustin Bergsing, 21, of Edgar, originally of Livingston, died at a Marathon oil well near Mandaree, N.D., on Jan. 8, 2012.
Blaine Otto, 40, of Sidney, originally of Havre, died at a Newfield Exploration well outside Keene, N.D., on July 18, 2013.
Zachary Buckles, 20, of Glasgow, his hometown, died at a Continental Resources well near Williston, N.D., on April 28, 2014.
Writing for EnergyWire, reporter Mike Soraghan takes a close look at all four deaths. Here’s the key part of his story:
The documents (examined by EnergyWire) show striking similarities between the four cases, which have each been treated differently. In some cases, the investigations show notable inconsistencies in their findings.
Robert Harrison, an occupational medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center who has investigated fatal chemical exposures in the workplace, said authorities such as coroners and medical examiners may be missing the signs of petroleum poisoning in oil field death cases.
“That’s certainly something we should be checking into further and doing additional investigations on whenever deaths occur suspiciously like this in the oil fields,” he said. “And I’d say dying alone in the middle of the night in North Dakota is a pretty unusual circumstance.”
And there’s this consideration:
If the fumes from a tank can kill in an instant, public health experts say it signals risks for the people who live nearby.
These are not drilling sites or frack jobs where a rig arrives, does its work for a few weeks and leaves. These tanks will be in place until the wells tied to them have drained all the possible oil from the Bakken formation, likely for years. Most are out on the prairie where there are more cattle than people, but some are in the middle of North Dakota’s scattered population centers.
For example, there’s Williston, the hub of the Bakken boom. On the city’s western edge, there’s a 36-tank battery across the street from new housing developments where little girls in pink neon ride bicycles down white concrete streets. What effect are the tank emissions having on them?
“Great question,” said professor John Adgate of the Colorado School of Public Health. “Nobody’s got any data.”
The whole story, part of a special series, is well worth reading.
