North Dakota's Boomtown Woes

摘要

North Dakota, the second-biggest oil producer in the US, is no stranger to boom and bust cycles. But the state is still struggling to deal with the population explosion that was spurred by rapid development of the Bakken Shale play over the last decade. The unique nature of the tight play combined with falling oil prices in recent years brought a host of environmental, technical and socioeconomic challenges. "It was probably the most intense development ever seen in an oil play," says David Glatt, top environmental health regulator in the state, which produces around 350 million barrels of oil and 400 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year. "A lot of things we didn't see coming."