By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
A lot full of seemingly abandoned frac sand bags which has been an eyesore along Highway 16 outside Glendive for the past couple of years is getting cleaned up.
District Sanitarian Kevin Pena said on Monday that he has seen a decent amount of progress in cleaning up the site over the last couple of months.
“The lower two-thirds of the property is pretty well cleaned up,” Pena said. “The vast majority of it has been removed. It’s quite a bit different than what it used to be.”
Large piles of frac sand bags have cluttered the property for some time. Many of the bags had split open from being exposed to the elements, spilling frac sand all over the property and leaving shredded plastic littering the lot.
According to county records, Northern Improvement Company, a highway and heavy construction firm based in Fargo, N.D., has owned the lot, which sits along a rail spur along the highway near Hollecker Lake, since 1998. The lot is subsequently leased by John Walsh, of Bismarck, the president of LOTI II, LLC, to Houston-based Fila-Mar Energy Services, which handles ceramic and natural sand proppants in the Bakken. Walsh said in an interview in June that if the company he leases the lot to did not take action to remove the bags of frac sand, he would.
Pena first began receiving complaints about the property in August 2013. Complaints rose after the property was seemingly abandoned in late 2015 when an office and trailer were removed. Peña ultimately brought the issue to the attention of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality earlier this year.
As far as the DEQ is concerned, Peña said the only environmental regulations being violated on the property are the bags of frac sand that have split open and spilled on the ground.
“Basically, where the solid waste violations are concerned are with the split open bags,” he said. “That’s what needs to be properly disposed.”
That’s what Peña has seen cleaned up so far, at least at the one end of the property. However, he noted that there is still work to do.
“If you go to the north end of the property, it’s still a big pile of nastiness,” he said.
However, Peña said that following his last conversation with DEQ enforcement officials, they are content to wait and see at the moment before taking any further regulatory action, given that progress has been made in cleaning up the spilled frac sand.
“We’re not going to give them the blessing it’s OK, but we’re not going to press them as long as they’re still progressing,” he said. “It’s a lot better, and I’m grateful for DEQ’s involvement there.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.