First Observations In Williston, Heart of the Bakken -- North Dakota, USA

First observations in Williston:

1. Restaurants are very, very short of help. Some restaurants are closed some days of the week.  Gramma Sharon's, for example, one of the city's favorites, closes every Wednesday due to lack of staff; they have a sign upon entry: "Please be patient; we are short of staff." McDonald's closes restaurant early but keeps drive-through open. For one of the busiest times of the day, breakfast, one person serving inside with at least ten people -- all oil men, it appears -- on way to work. Two lanes of traffic in drive-through with at least fifteen vehicles -- mostly pick-up trucks -- in line(s).

2. North, west, and east of Williston -- just on edge or outside city limits everywhere new industrial buildings going up. I did not see any what-we-called in the Air Force "quality-of-life" activities -- no new restaurants, parks, schools, roads, etc. The city is probably overwhelmed just trying  afloat with current demands. New dormitory going up at local college. New Schlumberger site going up west of Williston.

3. Water, water, water everywhere. All my years of growing up in Williston, I never even thought there was an issue with flooding locally. Now the water is five feet below flood stage on the dikes south of Williston. Much of low-lying areas east and northeast of Williston now under water. Amtrak rails almost under water; water up to the "ballast" -- the rocks on either side of the tracks holding the trackbed in place. Amtrak trains creep down the tracks into Williston. Some say the wheels actually in water; others say it didn't actually go over the track. The story is that due to the huge amount of snow (global warming) in the Rocky Mountains, they will be releasing more water from Ft Peck Dam upstream (as I write this); that water will flow towards Williston. If more water from Garrison Dam near Bismarck is not released, then there will be more flooding in the Williston area. And, of course, if more water is released from Garrison Dam in North Dakota, more water will flood Mississippi, Louisiana, points south. More in regional papers, including Bismarck. Also here, about oil wells in Williston area under water.

5. US Army Corps of Engineers has public viewing site southeast of Williston; usually open to traffic for public to drive in and park, walk up the steps on the dike to look at the Missouri River. Now, signs posted keeping traffic out, closing parking lot due to "emergency situation." We drove in; very, very polite gentleman said we could park long enough to go up and look at the Missouri River. We there about five minutes; others followed us in to take a look.

6. Having nothing to do with snow pack in Montana, or flooding, there is also just too much water still in the fields from the past winter (snow; global warming). Farmers are unable to get their machinery in the fields to plant seed. They have until June 5, 2011, to get the seed in; they cannot buy crop insurance after June 5. And farmers won't plant without crop insurance. "Most" farmers have insurance bought last year that pays them this year if they can't get their crop in this year. Of course, with rising price of commodities, they won't get nearly that much in insurance that they would have gotten from actual production. [Note: the June 5th date varies by crop, and there is a sliding scale after that date. Some dates passed in late May.]

7. Oil-related trucks, of course, everywhere.

8. Coming into Williston on Amtrak, from Minot, passed Stanley, Tioga (where oil was first discovered in North Dakota, in 1951): lots of new rail sidings, new rail spurs going into oil-loading facilities. New pipeline being laid everywhere. Until you see the actual process of laying pipeline, I don't think one realizes how big a project it really is. For the larger diameter pipe, it looks like the right-of-way is about the width of two railroad lines, maybe twenty yards across.

9. At McDonald's today, I heard no one speaking Norwegian, German, or Russian, but I heard a fair amount of Chinese being spoken -- by the customers, not the staff. Those speaking Chinese were all under 25 years of age, or so it appeared.

More later.