OIL BOOM: North Dakota farmers and ranchers learn to live—and sometimes prosper—with new 'tracking' oil wells for neighbors. Yet for some, it's too much, too fast

摘要

Afew years ago, some folks had written off North Dakota as a place of empty space and few people. Turn it and the rest of the High Plains into a huge national wildlife reserve and call it Buffalo Commons, they said.You don't hear much of that now. North Dakota, especially the northwest quadrant, is suddenly booming—filling with new people and new construction. Oil pumps are sprouting on the landscape like toadstools after a spring rain. Everywhere you look on thehorizon are derricks for drilling, tanks for storing and trucks for hauling black gold."There is a lot of money in the country, and a lot of people are getting wealthy off of it," says Powers Lake rancher Doug Feiring, 50. "I've seen a lot of oil booms and busts. But never anything like this."Feiring has oil wells on his land and receives royalties from oil leases, so he has a vested interest in the boom. But he also has reservations about it. Tanker and construction trucks beat up the rural roads. The cost of everything has skyrocketed.