Energy and the Environment in the Williston Basin: Ongoing USGS Projects and Recent USGS Publications

The Williston Basin has been a leading source for domestic oil and gas production since the 1950s and underlies about 135,000 square miles primarily in eastern Montana, North Dakota, and southern Saskatchewan. Today this region, which includes the oil-producing Bakken and Three Forks Formations, is in the midst of a modern energy boom, driven by technological advances in oil and gas development methods.

Multiple ongoing USGS projects are focused on various aspects related to energy and the environment in the Williston Basin. Specifically, these projects address brine contamination of shallow groundwater, wetlands, and streams; brine salt toxicity to invertebrates; groundwater availability; changes in groundwater geochemistry; changes in local land-use; surface water and groundwater chemistry; and trends in migratory bird populations. Principal investigators of these projects coordinate with multiple agencies and entities in addition to participating on bi-monthly conference calls within the USGS.

The USGS has also coordinated with multiple agencies and entities to prepare and release publications that discuss the relation between energy and the environment in the Williston Basin. These recent USGS publications focus on assessing brine-contamination vulnerability, delineating brine contamination plumes characterizing the spatial relations between energy and the environment, investigating the effects of brine salt on aquatic resources, and describing the hydrogeologic framework and conceptual flow model of the Williston Basin.

Information about these projects and publications can be located:

http://steppe.cr.usgs.gov/
http://wy-mt.water.usgs.gov/projects/WaPR/index.html
http://wy-mt.water.usgs.gov/projects/east_poplar/index.html
http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/