This is Part Three of On The Bus: An Exploration of Energy Impacts in Northeastern Montana.
Back on the bus with Montana state legislators on Saturday the discussion turned to the incomprehensible numbers that are tossed around on a daily basis on the Mondak fields. The first stop was the ONEOK's terminal where $1.8 billion dollars is being invested. Dick Vande Bossche, ONEOK's Director of Operations was on the bus and had lunch with the delegation. Right now at the Sidney terminal, ONEOK is moving via pipe gas that previously that was simply burnt on site. With ONEOK's help, drilling companies are instead turning gas into a profit instead of letting it go to waste. The small rail terminal has the capacity to ship 2 cars per day of gas to a processing plant. Each car holds 28,000 gallons of gas. Here's how much that is...if it was beer, it would be over 1,800 kegs. ONEOK is now adding capacity to process 60 cars per day or about the equivalent of 108,000 kegs. The OneOk cars go to one of several plants. ONEOK has a small plant in Baker, Montana however the bulk of the gas is shipped to their main plant in Hutchinson, Kansas.
The question arose as to why companies like ONEOK are necessary service companies. The answer is that environmental rules now mandate gas to be captured instead of burnt off. Fortunately, with processing, the gas is marketable allowing the cost of the EPA rules to be recouped.
Of course, those extra steps also create a need for extra workers and where they and their families will live and go to school is a challenge in all of the northeastern Montana communities. Sidney schools as well as all the schools are short on staff of all kinds. Last week when Sidney schools faced an outbreak of norovirus last week middle school principal Kelly Johnson said the only hands available to clean middle schools were students doing court mandated community service. Other concerns in Sidney include classroom space. One building owned by the district is in partial use although asbestos and other concerns called to the attention of school board members now leave the district faced with mitigation costs or the cost of tearing the building down and rebuilding to accommodate all the new students. Students who are coming into area with their parents because jobs are available in Sidney often come from periods of transitional living. Their parents make good money now, but with the rising cost of living in the area and years of unemployment in their former home towns leaves nothing for extras for the children – even when those extras are counseling or after school supervision.
In the audio to the left of this column middle school principal Kelly Johnson told the group about increased law enforcement involvement with her students and she told the story of a one child who is just trying to fit in who is proud of his new home in Sidney – a VW van.
Energy Tour 2011 was jointly sponsored by Representative Matt Rosendale and the Montana Petroleum Association.
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