These Stories Warm the Cockles of My Heart -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Cockles:

The common English phrase 'it warms the cockles of my heart', is used to signify that a feeling of deep-seated contentment is triggered.

Differing derivations of this phrase have been proposed, either directly from the perceived heart-shape of a cockleshell, or indirectly (the scientific name for the type genus of the family is Cardium, from the Greek for heart), or from the Latin diminutive of the word heart, corculum.

Another proposed derivation is from the Latin for the ventricles of the heart, cochleae cordis, where the second word is an inflected form of cor, heart, while cochlea is the Latin for snail.

Okay, now back to the story.

The story is a regional link so it may break early; you may want to go to the link sooner than later.

Some of the strain on community water treatment facilities will be alleviated with a new on-site waste water treatment plant at Target Logistics’ Tioga Lodge.

According to a press release, the $3 million plant, to be completed in November, will handle more than 180,000 gallons of waste water per day, generated by the 1,300 people soon to be living there.

While some local folks are wringing their hands over man-camps, others are working to find solutions.

This is why I strongly support state-of-the-art, professionally-run man-camps. Lack of man-camps won't stop the Bakken boom. It is what it is, and I am at lost to find a better solution to the current housing problem.

I have no problem with a temporary moratorium on man-camp applications to give the county a chance to sort out what's going on (although I think there are better options than moratoria), but the worse thing that can happen is unregulated man-camps going up or workers dispersing to unregulated "frat houses" inside city limits, and perhaps even to farmsteads. 

Target Logistics has "zero tolerance" when it comes to alcohol, drugs, fights, liaisons, etc., something that the average apartment complex and "frat houses" don't have. I'm not saying "things don't go on" at professionally run man-camps, but there is a concerted effort to keep infractions to a minimum.

I digress.

So, while some folks are wringing their hands over the man-camps, Target Logistics is working on solutions.

But this is what I really thought was interesting about the story. Their waste water treatment plant will have excess capacity, and "they" are thinking about handling waste product from other North Dakota towns and villages, and perhaps other man-camps.  Remember, there is a 2,500 man-camp going up west of Tioga, also.

The clean water from the waste water treatment plan will be sold to fracking companies.

Where some people see a problem, they can only complain. Others see problems as an opportunity.

Ya gotta love it.

This is commentary and I generally don't post comments to commentary unless the comments correct factual errors or add something to the story.