BISMARCK - A new state law barring oil wells from being drilled within 500 feet of a home will apply only to dwellings lived in at least six months of the year.
A legislative committee that approves or disapproves state administrative rules voted Wednesday not to make changes in proposed rules by the state Oil and Gas Division that exclude part-time dwellings, despite opposition testimony.
Dakota Resource Council organizer-member Cindy Klein of Dickinson, N.D., told the Legislature's interim Administrative Rules Committee that it's not just vacation homes and old farm houses turned into hunting shacks that will be affected. It could create havoc for "snowbirds."
"In western North Dakota, there are landowners who do not live on their farms all year long. Should they be afforded any less protection than one who does?"
Klein said the administrative rules the Oil and Gas Division wrote to put House Bill 1229 into effect are in conflict with the legislative intent of the bill. But Rep. Duane DeKrey, R-Pettibone, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee that heard the bill, said the rules match the legislative intent that was discussed when the bill was deliberated. Rep. Chuck Damschen, R-Hampden, agreed; he also was on the committee.
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"We came to the conclusion that it was a reasonable compromise" to apply only to full-time or nearly full-time residences, DeKrey said.
Klein said the law on oil wells should be the same as the law on coal mining, in which the owners of "any building used on any basis" is notified, with no reference to full-time occupancy or part-time occupancy.
But Bruce Hicks, the deputy director of the Oil and Gas Division, said in this case, coal mining and oil drilling are "two completely different things" as far as how residences can be affected.
A motion Wednesday to reject the rules and return them to the Oil and Gas Division for rewriting failed when only two members voted in favor.
Cole reports for Forum Communications Co.
