General News

The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality says approximately 500 barrels of produced water leaked from a pipeline east of Williston last week.

The pipeline is owned and operated by Polar Midstream.

Spill investigation program manager Bill Suess said it’s mostly salt brine, with a small bit of oil in it. He said the company's metering indicated a loss of pressure on the pipeline – and company inspectors found the leak about 20 miles east of Williston.

Suess said the water flowed down a hill into a small tributary of the Missouri River.

The city of Mott continues to clean up after Friday night’s F-1 tornado.

Mott Mayor Troy Mosbrucker said the city had about 25 minutes of warning before the twister went through. He said no one was hurt – but there was plenty of damage.

"We had several buildings on Main that were affected," Mosbrucker said. "A car wash and connected storage units had the roof torn off and the doors torn off. We have a lot of uprooted trees, damage to homes in downtown, damaged grain bins."

Mosbrucker said a grain bin flew into the side of someone's house.

A 42-unit apartment building in northwest Mandan was severely damaged by fire Sunday.

The blaze was reported shortly after noon. Firefighters say it began in a third floor patio – and spread throughout the upper floor.

"The entire third floor was consumed," said Morton County Emergency Manager Tom Doehring. "It will be uninhabitable, and it will have to be reconstructed."

Fire crews from Mandan, Bismarck, the nearby Marathon Oil Refinery, and rural departments responded. They fought the blaze in 90-plus degree heat and humid conditions.

A Rolette County woman is speaking up and telling her story about being sexually abused by a Catholic Priest. Prairie Public Reporter Todd McDonald has details…

The state Board of Higher Education has given UND permission to issue up to $80 million in bonds for a new Student Union.

But the actual cost may be less than that.

UND students voted to approve the project, with the bond payoff to come from increased student fees.

Interim UND President Josh Wynne had asked the staff to take another look at the proposal – because he was concerned about increased student debt load. But he told the Board he supports the project.

The mining stopped in the mid-90s.

But the reclamation work goes on.

Knife River Coal continues to work on reclaiming the Gascoyne Mine in southwestern North Dakota. It has one permitted parcel left to reclaim.

"This has taken decades," said Public Service Commissioner Randy Christmann, who holds the PSC's reclamation portfolio. "While some of the features were tiny, they weren't ignored."

Christmann said the company needed to make sure the reclamation was done correctly, even though mining operations had ceased -- and no revenue was coming in.

The developers of the Dakota Access Pipeline are taking the next step in expanding the pipeline’s capacity.

The current capacity is 500,000 barrels of oil a day.

Energy Transfer Partners has now applied to the North Dakota Public Service Commission to site a new pumping station in Emmons County, west of Linton.

"It will consist of five 6,000 horsepower electric motors and pumps," said Commissioner Julie Fedorchak. "It will allow for pipeline transportation of up to 1.1 million barrels of crude oil per day.