Thee Senate is considering a bill to require monitoring and spill prevention technology on all new natural gas of wastewater pipelines.
The bill follows the latest large oil spill in the Bakken. Nearly three million gallons of salty, oily wastewater spilled into a creek and went undetected for weeks.
Senate majority leader Rich Wardner (R-Dickinson) sponsored the bill. He says he wants third-party inspection of the pipelines.
"I know it's going to cost more. But I, and this is in a lot of areas in state government, I've just about had it up to my eyeballs in people taking care of their own. And when you have the fox guarding the hen house it's not very good. "
Last year, the Department of Mineral Resources began enforcing new rules requiring companies to fill out a checklist to prove they'd installed pipelines the right way. But the Department currently doesn't follow-up to make sure. They've struggled to hire inspectors for months. The Department has also come under fire in recent months for habitually reducing penalties for oilfield violations like illegal dumping.
No one testified against the bill.
