Small towns throughout the sprawling spaces of western North Dakota treat their wastewater in lagoon systems. The nearest large-scale municipal treatment plant is in Bismarck, some four hours away.
As the oil exploration workforce in the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formations rose from 5,000 in 2005 to more than 20,200 in 2011, towns accepted septage from pumpers with whom they had contracts, but closed the door to new arrivals. Worker camps and more than 200 drilling rigs – the greatest source of hydraulic volume – generate 2 million gallons of septage per month.
The area has 17 pumping companies operating nonstop,
