The Williston Wire

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Best story of the day: A swimming sensation at the 2012 London Olympics, Bethesda's Katie Ledecky followed her gold-medal performance in the Summer Games with a record-smashing showing at the world championships in Barcelona this summer.  For her achievements in 2013, highlighted by winning four gold medals and setting two world records at the FINA World Championships, the 16-year-old Ledecky was named the U.S. Olympic Committee's Sportswoman of the Year.  Ledecky is the granddaughter of long-time Williston resident Kathleen Hagan and the niece of Frank Keogh.

Construction at one of Williston's newest subdivisions is in high gear.  The infrastructure is in the ground at The Meadows and eight single family homes are under construction; builders hope to break ground on at least five more before winter weather sets in.  Some of the 104 lots feature beautiful views of the Eagle Ridge Golf Club and Little Muddy River. The development will accept single family occupancy only. 

Lutheran Social Services is getting ready to complete a key project that will provide another location for older adults living in Williston to call home. The Legacy at Central Place (formerly the Williston Junior High)is expected to be ready for occupancy at the end of 2013.  The 44-unit project has one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartmentsthat will be rented out to those 55 and older with modest income. 

This is truly an incredible story: It's been a long day for Andrew Klefstad. And a long four years.  At dawn, he coaxed milk from the cows in his father Roger's barn near Ridgeland, Wis. Then he went back to work, restoring the century-old farmhouse that will soon become his young family's home.  Now it's 11 p.m., and his wife, Tiffany, is reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck, kissing him goodbye after a 90-mile drive from the farm to the Amtrak depot in St. Paul.  A duffel bag slung over his shoulder, Klefstad searches for a seat. More than 54,000 passengers last year rode this 12-hour, overnight train to the Bakken oil fields near Williston - more than doubling the passenger volume since North Dakota's latest oil boom began.

Not dealing with dry holes -- where I have heard that before? A leading energy analyst believes the world has an endless supply of oil.  Speaking at the North Dakota Motor Carriers Association Oilfield Trucking Convention in Dickinson, Southern Methodist University professor Bernard Weinstein said with advances in technology, fossil fuels may never run dry.  "There are five factors that go into the amount of oil that's available: geology, technology, price, capital and policy. Forever is a long, long time, but producing from shale is not like wildcatting. Shale plays are more like manufacturing plays because you're not really dealing with dry holes. We don't really know how much shale oil and gas is recoverable because the numbers keep going up." 

In June (most recent month for international oil production data), the three most prolific US oil fields - Permian Basin, Eagle Ford, and Bakken - together produced more than 3.1 million bpd. To put that amount of oil into perspective, that's almost as much oil produced throughout all of Canada in June at 3.66 million bpd, and slightly more oil than Iraq produced in June at 3.1 million bpd.

More trains proposed to move North Dakota oil to Washington state. With five refineries, Washington has long received crude oil from Alaska and elsewhere by ship, barges or pipelines.