 Welcome to the third in a series of webinars on reclamation. I want to welcome you on behalf of the committee members. Miranda Meehan from NDSU. Brenda Schladweiler with BKS over in Wyoming. Natalie West with the IRS in Sydney and Carl Rockman with Department of Air and Mental Quality. We appreciate you joining us in this different format. Hopefully next year we'll be able to sit together and meet again in person and have coffee and visit. But thank you for making this technology work. And I appreciate those of you that are able to join in this format that otherwise wouldn't be able to attend in person. So I invite you to join us again next week at the same time, same place for a webinar on using technology to enhance reclamation. A couple of housekeeping details that you can see on your screen. If your screen isn't as cluttered as mine that is. If you have questions, there's a Q&A box. We ask that you put them in there. But we do ask that you post to the chat. I understand that you can't see the participants. So the only way for you to know who's out there is post to the chats. We welcome you to go ahead and do that now just so that we know who's out there and your fellow peers know who's out there as well. I'll let you know that this session is being recorded. And that recording is available on the ND reclamation website. Just type in ND reclamation or the address is or will be put in the chat room as well. Miranda Meehan will be monitoring the Q&A and she'll come in when appropriate to do that. I think Carl Rockman will probably be helping her as well. So if you have questions, please put those in the Q&A. So with that, let's go ahead and move to our next slide and we'll introduce our speakers for today. Our speakers today are Sam Crote. Sam is a graduate of NDSU and holds a master's degree in soil science. She now works as a soil scientist for Stealth Energy up in Williston. Her main focus is produced water and hydrocarbon spill remediation, well pad and pipeline reclamation and a suite of other environmental services. Also with Sam today is Harold Rhodes. Harold's work in the public works and civil construction has provided the opportunity to produce, to participate in dynamic diverse projects throughout the United States and Hawaii. Sometimes I bet he still wishes it in Hawaii. His career is now dedicated to responsible environmental remediation, reclamation and restoration within the energy sector, combining decades of experience with today's generation of extraordinarily talented soil and environmental scientists. Thanks Harold. Today's presentation is a summary of the innovative approaches Summit, midstream and Stealth Energy Group have taken to reclaim oil and gas related soil disturbances such as contamination and soil disturbances such as pipeline construction. With that, we'll let Sam go ahead and start. Again, if you have questions, please put those in the Q&A and if you haven't already, please post to the chat so we can see who's out there. Sam. Perfect, thank you Toby. Hi everyone and happy St. Patrick's Day. Thanks for tuning in with Harold and I. Like Toby mentioned, my name is Sam Crote and I am a soil scientist with Stealth Energy Group out of my focus mainly on oil field remediation and reclamation and I'm here today with Harold. Yeah, my name is Harold Rhodes. I work with Summit midstream. They're environmental remediation manager. That role primarily supports all of our facility and response. Measures and plans as well as right away reclamation and maintenance. And today Harold and I are going to touch on a few new kind of out of the box, innovative ideas and approaches to reclamation. You know, focus on those methods other than the conventional dig and haul method. So before we dive in too far, I just want to define what I call the Rs of reclamation. So I'm guilty of using these terms interchangeably, but they actually do have slightly different definitions. The most common three are reclamation, remediation and restoration. Reclamation is the construction or reconstruction of soil and plant communities after a disturbance. They may not be returned to the exact condition of predisturbance, but it permits that land that was degraded to function adequately in the ecosystem that it is a part of. Remediation is the next one. And this falls underneath reclamation. So we need to make sure that we don't have to have to create reclamation. So to achieve reclamation, sometimes we need to reclaim, right? So most commonly used in spills, we remove contaminants from the soil to protect the health and population of the environment. So return to a natural pollution free state. And then we have restoration, which is the return of degraded sites to the exact condition that it was prior to its disturbance. So like reclamation kind of on steroids, it's going back to exactly what it was, and reclamation is making it better than it was when it was disturbed. So like I said, a note to think about is remediation falls under that reclamation umbrella. And revegetation and rehabilitation are also some R words that are thrown around, but revegetation is just the vegetation phase of reclamation and rehabilitation can be used synonymously with reclamation. So as Harold and I were putting this presentation together, we were sorting through all of the details and looking at all the different projects and new methods, ideas that we've used and attempted in the past years and a little bit of a theme became apparent to us. We created this conceptual equation, equation, if you will. It includes the main variables and components needed for reclamation. How you approach them and how much effort you put into each one can really dictate your short and long-term reclamation success. So we'll go further into detail on each bullet point or component of the equation listed here, but briefly we have a challenge on the side of the problem that we have. We have experience. We look at our past experiences. Site characterization and delineation, proving your equation, amendments and vegetation and then flexibility. And theoretically none of these work without the other ones implied. So here's another schematic of the equation. And I want you all to remember and just to note this is a new idea for us. This is kind of just how it fell together for us and it is conceptual. We included the main points that go through our heads when we approach a reclamation project. It's not perfect. And as we go through examples, we want to hear the different variables that maybe we're missing or we're not targeting hard enough so we can improve this equation. In addition, there's lots of ways this is going to work. So we're going to go through the same multiplication, division, addition. So forgive us if there's any mathematical issues, but that should be taken up with neither herald or I because we are not mathematicians. So we'll just go through the letters again. We have experience, site characterization, delineation, amendments and vegetation. Recovery is more specific to if we have more hydrocarbons. The quicker you get to recover that pool, their standing liquid, the quicker your reclamation is going to be. So let me stop here for just a second. Just to emphasize what Sam's last comment there was. The difficulties we encounter during reclamation are so intricately tied to our response time that these problems can actually be magnified exponentially as time goes on. So her thoughts there as far as response timing, absolutely critical. I think time and again we've seen that being just one of the most important variables that we encounter, although we didn't include it in our equation this year. Right, it's still a work in progress. So then we have flexibility which is put as an exponent or the equation is put to the power of flexibility. It's kind of a blanket and all of these should be thought of with a flexible mind when we're thinking about it. So all of these put together equal successful reclamation. So moving on with the equation, first we have our challenge, right? So we always start with a problem and that's what we're doing. With the challenge, we have the challenge on the top and our goal on the bottom. So we have our spill and what we want. We want to make that land back to its natural state or better. Yeah, I agree with that Sam too. And that challenge, that's a non-optional path. But at that point, that's what mobilizes our activity. And it's not so much what we do, but more importantly, I think within the environmental, within the reclamation and remediation community, that is literally why we do it because we have accepted that challenge. So the next point is experience. So this takes what we've done in the past, what has worked and what hasn't. So did what we used on our last reclamation project, is that going to apply specifically to our next one? Probably not. Were there some major hiccups before when we tried this? Well, let's work those out and take that experience, reevaluate and learn from it. And that experience is huge. We naturally do it every day, but I challenge you all to take what you did on your last project and improve it through every future one. So we'll start with a couple of examples of applying our past experiences. So picture yourself walking up to a spill that looks like this. A pipeline strike that release produce water into a water drainage or wetland area. So our past experiences tell us that reclaiming wetlands after a disturbance is extremely difficult. So while trying to avoid even more disturbance with a dig and hole method and thinking about previous methods we've used with applying amendments and pumping water and using water recovery like tile drainage, we take all those ideas and we modify them to this scenario and we implement it. And with that, we had great success. You can see on the right. The left is, you know, when we first approached it and the right is after our reclamation was complete and the results are amazing. Yeah, that is an absolutely perfect example, Sam. I think that our experience helps us to better identify potential risks and it also provides that the potential paths forward that literally became part of the solution. And that project in particular was an example of that. So we have another example. Again, we have a spill that Harold is notified of. Stealth responds with him and this is what we see on the left-hand side. It may not look very spilly, but our minds are moving 100 miles per hour. You know, there's a lot of frantic emotions going out, but we walk ourselves through these equations and really the first thing our mind goes to is, what have we done before that will work here? So we hear our previous experience tells us that, you know, we're adjacent to a body of water and amendments was on the table for applying to this spill. And we need to take into consideration the body of water and our amendments and how they're going to mix, do they mix, can they mix? So whether that be diversions or picking a different a nitrate versus, you know, a sulfate sort of amendment to prevent future issues in that water body. So it just needs to be studied closely. Rates needed to be adjusted and you just need to think about all the things you've done in the past. Our next component is site characterization and delineation, which is arguably the most critical component in this equation. For those of you that participated in the Reclamation Conference last year, Dr. Tom DeSutter really drove the message of delineation home and Harold and I this year really focused on our personal delineation methods and processes just as past year have seen our success rates you know, skyrocket just because we took the time to do the proper investigations and delineations and they paid off in the end, not only with a better reclamation but more cost effective, which you know it really comes down to that. Yeah, Sam is absolutely right there. Following last year's conference, you know we literally did tear apart everything we had related to how we historically viewed site characterization and delineation and identified what problems were presented at the field level, you know, how we could make them better. And it was a top to bottom review from the available field parameters to the various methods we used, what different meters and equipment were available, how do we format this on a field sheet? You know, I think obviously that our field delineation will continue to improve as we move forward but like Sam says, we can already see how this is, how it is enhanced and allowed our responses to become that much more predictable. Yeah, absolutely. It's really like any project too. You go back to the basics of just making sure that you're prepared and you have all the information. You know, you're following a recipe, you want all of your ingredients right in front of you before you tackle the task at hand. So a little more on site characterization. Here's a nice quote from Maryweather Lewis as he was doing some of his own characterization as he was exploring. You know, he's looking at how tall that the banks are, what color it is. There's mud, there's salt. You know, it's something we do all the time, just taking the time to note them and interpret them really. So, you know, we have for characterization, we look at soil types. We have the soil survey database to use in certain instances. Landowners are huge. They know what's there. They've been around for years. They're a really good resource that you can just ask those questions to. The DEQ has a lot of information on, you know, the oil and gas side of things along with the NDIC. When well pads were drilled, you know, what they did to build it, when they built it. And the DEQ is a resource with tons of extension work and they've done research and have recommendations for almost everything. For the delineation, you know, we use visual observations. Does it look contaminated or not? Is there oil there? Is it saturated? Field screening, we look at soil types, conductivities. We use PIDs and FIDs. We use the PIDs and FIDs and FIDs. We also do the sewerization detection for hydrocarbons and QANTABS for chlorides. We do a suite of things and all of this kind of puts our plan together. And when we're doing all those things, we need to take a holistic approach or keep in the back of our mind that soils are broken up into these make up or affect our soil health, which then affects our yield, productivity, or reclamation, which is our overall goal. When we have a produced water or hydrocarbon release, these items in bolded red are what first come to mind of being impacted by the contamination. So conductivity and sodium, obvious for produced water on the chemical side. Microbial and fungal pools, they have toxicities levels against produced water. Carbon turnover itself, if you have hydrocarbon introduced in. So physically, your bulk density can be affected by what method you choose. Are you gonna bring out a big bulldozer? You need to think about that before you start a reclamation, are you gonna have a compaction issue later on? So just to make sure you cover all your bases before, and of course, all of these apply to a water release as well. So now Harold will go a little bit more in depth on our delineation methods and processes. Thanks, Sam. Just once again on our site characterization and delineation, we have realized now that it is absolutely key in in our understanding of the particular challenge we may face from site to site. Ideally, a lot of this understanding, some of the available tools that we have with our disposal is gonna be established prior to pulling up on site, such as can you navigate the U.S. community in our C.S. soil survey site? Have you spent literally countless hours on NDSU's soil science website? Do you and can you reference material off of the new surface of groundwater data regarding the lake stream? Can you pull up topographical map? Can you identify endangered and threatened species on the internet? All of those aspects of it, once you're familiar with the various providers and realize that all of it is available publicly, it really does become a useful resource and absolutely invaluable resource. Much of this, we're right now in the process of incorporating this into our system web maps where a lot of this information is now gonna be available as a layer. So that rather than happen to navigate multiple different websites, we'll literally be able to just turn on or off a layer. It isn't so much that we need to have the entire ecosystem of Northern Great Plains committed to memory. Although if you do have the geology and ecology of the entire Northern Great Plains committed to memory, I would love to talk to you. And if somebody can forward my phone number, whatever, I greatly appreciate it. But anyhow, my point here is that knowing those various resources that we have literally on our fingertips has proven invaluable. Once we have a functional understanding of where we are on the map, I think that field delineation will prove much more useful. It literally has proven to be much more useful. Sam mentioned earlier that delineation was discussed at last year's Reclamation Conference and that really struck a note on how we can improve our response. And from a operator or a producer's perspective, that is something that we always want to look at. Identifying the reliable field parameter conductivity, pH, chloride, PDF, as well as understanding how various visual indicators, whether that be vegetation, stress, scaling, screen care, does the stream have a portion of this creek or drainage to where water isn't present, but a couple hundred feet on either side, there is water present. Does that potentially indicate that that's a gaining or a losing area on the screen? All of that information from a delineation standpoint is absolutely critical in us being able to deploy not only the appropriate control measures or response, but to ultimately be successful in our response. I think that each project is unique and that delineation is absolutely key in getting off on the right foot. I just absolutely believe that. I think over the last year, we're absolutely starting to see that. The approving your equation, going back to our Reclamation as an equation concept is something we must do. We must know the challenge. We must remember or recall or access our past experience and understanding. This literally isn't our first rodeo. We aren't doing this for the first time. And we must always work to accurately characterize this. Have we identified our critical receptors? Have we delineated our impact? Have we placed the right resources and the right people most importantly in the right place? I think after that, we can begin to prove the equation. We can verify our plan. We've studied, we've planned, we've trained and now we actually have that opportunity, that obligation to execute. You know, and I don't want to sound like where success is going to come right away. For the first few hours, maybe a day or two, things are gonna go smoothly. But as we continue to delineate, as we continue to gather additional background and information, we will have to adjust. Our response will adjust. But I think that's the nature, but I believe that it's fluid throughout the duration of the project. I think each benefit passes, there's fewer and fewer of those unknowns. I think more and more is brought into clarity. And I think that we will continue to adjust, ideally bending rather than breaking. But that literally is the key in maintaining that response flexibility, not allowing or rather not creating a box where we don't have any other options, where we don't have any alternatives, where we fail to communicate what we need and what our path forward potentially can entail. I think at the end of the day, we're gonna have better information. I don't know if it's gonna be the information that we want, but I do know that at the end of the day, we're gonna have another opportunity tomorrow. And I don't wanna wax poetic on this much, but that literally is, we're gonna have really, really rough days, but we're gonna have another opportunity to learn from it and move on tomorrow. I think, yeah, you were spot on Harold, in a nutshell, the proving of our equation is really putting a work plan together and taking everything and executing your plan. And just making sure we have everything in line before we go. Absolutely, Sam. I think that no matter what we do, success is subjective, specifically in our field. We can look back at projects in 2015, and I believe it was successful, but there was room for improvement. We can look back at projects then in 2017. Oddly enough, once again, we were overall successful, but there was even more room for improvement. That condition has continued each year. Unfortunately, I'm not necessarily getting better. We're literally becoming aware of more and more things that we potentially could improve on, which is good. I think it's good that we try to be our own most effective critic. Understanding what has worked in the past is important, but it's critical that we understand what that function actually was. I think that is key to being able to address the physical and chemical, the biological issues that may have been created, whether it be in soil or water, based on how we've delineated a specific impact. As far as amendments and number one, North Dakota Remediation Resource Manual, if everybody hasn't reviewed that, that is really a wonderful resource. On some of the more commonly used amendments and how they potentially could be applicable, of course, calcium sulfate, calcium nitrate, some of the microbial amendments that can be used in relation to hydrocarbons, aeration and volatilization, that's a little bit newer. And then the SA-1000, I'll put it in one slide. But I'm sure everybody already has kind of looked at that remediation resource map, and it does provide a lot of practical information. Well, when we look at amendments, we look at not only the standard use or application, but also how them potentially could be utilized to enhance other research activity. Calcium sulfate or calcium nitrate, for example, each are effective when using that industry standard or common application. Well, we've also found that we can utilize these various amendments to increase our mass recovery. If we are looking at shallow groundwater or perched groundwater, calcium nitrate in a similar manner to mitigate that surface soil absorption and enhance our recovery of that produced water impact. Few slides earlier, when we were looking at one of the projects, that was actually one of the methods that we utilize there, combining our calcium nitrate with a really dense surface recovery system, really proved effective. If I'm being honest, I haven't seen any benefit to the SA-1000. The SA-1000 is a produced water amendment, but the process or the thought behind it, I absolutely find fascinating. I think the possibility of being able to potentially precipitate out those potential produced water impacts into a non-soluble form could be extraordinarily beneficial in mitigating impact. I think it's just really fascinating. I kind of regret putting that on there, but what they are trying to do and that path forward is well, like I say, absolutely fast. I'll even add to that, we do a lot of bench tests and field tests at our job trailers. So if anybody who wants to borrow any kaitusan, alginate, we've got ground corals, whatever they potentially may need to try and experiment, we have literally got a little bit of everything in America. Although we didn't include it here, but depending on what remediation process being utilized, enhancing hydraulic conductivity around our recovery system and also something that's feasibly possible right now. And that's simply by using sand. And when I say to enhance or increase hydraulic conductivity, we would rather or ideally have one control point or recovery location that actually could potentially affect or effectively remediate a much larger area. And I think enhancing our hydraulic conductivity, simply using sand in this case is one of the methods that I think it's proven very, very effective. Similar to some of the amendments available for produced water impacts, I think you see similar things with the hydrocarbon impacts primarily focusing on the introduction of various microbial populations, combining that with sufficient aeration and additional organics and moisture being key. We done a project two years ago, began a project two years ago, completed last year where it is absolutely feasible that we can use microbial communities to effectively remediate hydrocarbon impact as well. That vegetation or rather our desired plant community is also one of the things that's critical during that initial delineation, what species are present and potentially what species based upon our experience could actually be beneficial to that remediation for that period of time. So this is one of the things that I'm really fascinated about. So in the slide on the top is a plant community dominated by lamb's quarter. Of course, the photograph from the bottom is the desired or ideal plant community and that was the following year. One of the things that we found interesting about lamb's quarter specifically is that a lot of the negative competition that say for example, Koshia exerts on the plant, the other members of that plant community, we didn't see that with the lamb's quarter. But in their natural environment, plants thrive in specialized communities. They compete both directly and indirectly for the natural resources, for nutrient. And oftentimes these plant communities exist and thrive in very localized areas. The reaction between these plant communities is literally the foundation of nature's naturally occurring recovery systems and our ecosystem's property. And in regards to reclamation, it literally is the dominant recovery process. We've identified various species, like I mentioned, the lamb's quarter and we are working with Kingwa over the last several years and they've worked to identify how these species actually participate within the larger plant community and how they can potentially drive or guide succession within that plant community. And I think that species choice, whether for remediation, restoration, or even right-wing stabilization, short-term versus long-term, I think there's an extraordinary amount of opportunities and understanding that could be gained as we look at some of these various species and plants. The slide, so this is the last part of our equation. Like I mentioned, when we had that schematic, flexibility is to the power of the equation. So every part of the equation should be thought of with some sort of flexibility. So when you're thinking about proving your equation and what method you're gonna use, the amendments and vegetation, think of a new species that isn't planted all the time. That's very salt tolerant. Maybe it's grown in Canada. Think of something new and creative to do. Many, many years, reclamation has been approached the same way. We do the diggin' hall. So when curves are thrown at us and when we get these new projects, we need to adjust quickly. We need to think out of the box. We have our conventional response of the diggin' hall, of course. Easy, right? We dig out the contamination and we bring the clean back in. But we have some limitations there where we're limited on resources like topsoil, especially in North Dakota. Disposals can meet their capacity. They can be expensive. So we have other ways. And for example, here on the left-hand side, we have an electro-kinetic system. It's not used to solve every problem, but in the right situation, it can be a non-destructive way of remediation, therefore reclamation. And don't get me wrong, there are times when diggin' hall is the best option. For example, if we have a pipeline strike during a very time-sensitive road construction project, is diggin' hall the best method in big emergencies, it needs to be done. But that doesn't mean we didn't think about our equation. We didn't think about new things to do, or if we could make this into a little experiment. We thought about vegetation. We thought about soil types. And that was the option that we have to go with. Amendments and vegetation just didn't fit the suit. So that when we look at the available resources, when are they available? What is available? Do we carry an inventory? Are there different options? You really need to take a look at what types of materials, what type of products, resources are needed to adequately respond. And I think that's really been critical for us in our response now is that we've with time identified some of these critical products, resources, skill sets to where we have them available. That's been really, really beneficial. One other option is that you can't box yourself in. So if that means you literally go out and swath and bale the kosher dominant straw that the farmers or your landowners don't want to bale, that's just something you do and that actually works out well. You know, I think the thought or concept of getting a bigger toolbox, that's literally something we should all be working on. We all want to learn something new every day. And we want to have a ability, a method, a process to be able to store that knowledge. You know, I love toolboxes. I would love a bigger toolbox. Maybe I would just like to have two smaller ones but more toolboxes, it's critical. So what are we doing now? Present day in the field, we are applying and solving the equation. So this is where I want to kind of switch gears in the presentation. We're going to walk you through some real life examples of projects that we do. So while we do so, I just want you guys to pick up on the variables and the components of the equation that we focus on in each example. So this would be regarding our surface water controls. A surface water control dam, whether that be to prevent or inhibit potential impacts from migrating downstream or in the instance of the picture to the right and the one on the bottom to actually be able to adjust or create additional hydraulic head within the strain to inhibit or mitigate potential connections to impacted groundwater is absolutely critical. You know, but our thought over the last couple of years is that converting these historically unsightly control measures into something that's more environmentally friendly, more environmentally sound has literally enhanced our habitat on some of these areas. Whether that be enhancements within the diversity of the species that we now see or actual historical uses now or new uses. And we've been able to accomplish that by literally still providing the primary function of those surface water control dams in the beginning. This is another area when we look back at how that historical surface water control dam was and that it's literally critical to have in some places. We recognized that the disturbance created with a conventional control dam was sometimes more difficult to restore than the actual response itself. So what we looked at last spring was being able to develop some sort of surface water control dam that a guy could literally put on the back of his shoulder in the back of the side by side and take out to a water body and actually deploy it in the field that would have little to virtually no impact to the surrounding habitat or soils and could be easily picked back up when it's need or purpose that actually being completed. And that's kind of our work there with these temporary surface water control dams is we always need to reduce or mitigate what our footprint and activity helps to create. I think that goes to this slide here. As we look at the various different activities through some of that later activity related to delineation through the installation of our active control measures, looking at how that work was actually completed and where we could actually improve in it. This was the concept that we came up with that these are the various tasks that we need to be able to achieve. And we literally started from zero and figured out how we could actually do it. Right, and this is just a geo probe tool that is used to take soil cores and it helps with our delineation. So we can punch multiple cores down to X number of feet, five, 10 feet, and that's one thing that it can do. It can install EK systems, monitoring wells, air sparging. A lot of these things, these methods have a story behind them and we can go into detail all day about them but you can also just call us later. But it's just using tools like these that can help us with attacking reclamation better. And here's another example of it. Yeah, and this is actually, the earlier slide would actually be the concept, the small inset photograph to the left, that is actually our first model. Could we do this? Would it help? Could we actually save time? The system on the skid steering, not so much time saving. We had a gas generator that ran a worn winch that pulled an electric camera up and down but the concept was sound, it actually worked. We went through and designed and fabricated now the rig that you can see on the right and it is effective. It's on a quick attach, we can attach it to a skid steering if we want, it can be attached to a excavator if need be. It can, as Sam said, we can go through with the initial delineation, grab samples, geo-probe, the installation of any of all of our infrastructure, infiltration, air sparging, it is really slick. And it does it all with a virtually, or not virtually, it does all of that activity while significantly minimizing our impact onto the surrounding soils. We don't wanna tear up so much ground that we literally create a bigger problem just responding to the initial incident. I love that. So on that, when we, from a producer or a operator standpoint, look to try and define what a successful project is, I think it's really difficult. I think each project is unique. I think that each landowner you deal with is going to have unique needs and concerns. And at the end of the day that we can't group it all together. We can't say that our success of this reclamation project is gonna be based, say, for example, on 70% vegetation cover. Although that 70% vegetation cover is a critical milestone. But we have to go back to the definition of reclamation and there'll be a moment where I think during that process, we've actually created a better environment than potentially was there before. And I think that can be communicated as success. That is something that regardless of who we are interacting with, primarily it's our landowners, we can point to those concrete moments. And I think it helps the project to be successful. This is why we do what we do. The picture on the top is immediately following our initial response within a few weeks. The photograph in this bottom is taken from the same area of that same response. It is the reason that anyone that's chosen either the environmental or reclamation field as they're calling or accepted it as they're calling. This is literally what we do. And I love this quote. In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do. The next best thing is the wrong thing. And the worst thing is you can do nothing at all. That is key. I often times if we've had the same conversation on countless times is sometimes we can get so hung up with not doing anything wrong that there literally isn't enough time left in the day to do anything right. And we have to balance that. We have to continue pushing forward but doing it responsibly. This is a project up north of Stanley. This is the bio remediation. This is in reference. This was a field scale pilot test we done. We had two HDPE lined containments. We created a drainage system around them and we remediated approximately 800 cubic yards of hydrocarbon impacted soil. My takeaway is land farming absolutely is a positive for the environment, for the industry. I am absolutely certain that we can remediate impacted soils. I think that in doing so that we can create soils that would be suitable for use as top soils in different uses within the industry. And that could solve a huge problem. But I think we do need additional work to identify potential risks associated with land farming. I think we need to have a better understanding of where land farming potentially would fit in from a regulatory standpoint. I think following this project which was completed last year, I do have a question and maybe somebody can answer it in the comments. What role does or potentially could sublimation have on the remediation of hydrocarbon impacted soils? And what I'm talking about specifically is what happens when that soil freezes? I do know something happens because we've literally tested that and it's been on three occasions in all of our bench tests. But kind of curious field. All right, thanks Harold. So Harold and I don't just focus on produced water and hydrocarbon contamination every day. Actually, these projects moving forward are taking place in Ohio and West Virginia where they have a large gas field presence. And their pipeline installation does not look anything like Mark Dakota's pipeline installation. They have construction on very extreme slopes and they have rock parent materials. And you can see this kind of outcrop of rock down in your left-hand corner and they have the water drainage issues. So soil slips is what you see on the left here is what happens when that water is infiltrating into the soil and hitting that rock. And then it just travels along that rock face and brings all the soil with it. And it slips down slope with no help from gravity pulling it down. They come in all shapes of sizes and you can see on the right-hand side how these slips are literally bandated together when the construction is done. The matting looks like band-aids. There's no root systems to anchor that soil down to prevent slippage. It's just a blanket on top of the surface. So without the proper process in applying this equation in some way, shape, or form the photo on the left is what you can end up with. You can end up with a soil slip and you're starting construction over again. So to repair some of these slips this is a more small-scale one. You can see on the bottom and the middle is our slip. It just slipped down towards that creek bottom and we used something similar to a retaining wall. We used tile drainage to manage the water that's traveling around that rock face underneath so it would have somewhere to go laterally. And we put this wall up as a good foundation to hold that slipped soil instead of moving it back up. In addition to that, we used, on the top right we took little transplants or plugs from the right of way that was already established and put it into the rock face. So we're establishing roots to be anchors. That's huge for us here in the Appalachian range. And on the left-hand side you can see an example of reclamation taking a lot of effort. We literally loaded up wagons and sleds of these rocks and shuttled them down this hill hundreds of yards to minimize disturbance. You don't always need the big dozers and excavators. There's a way around that sometimes to get this job done. Just like the anchoring of the rooting system with the grasses it applies even better with trees and shrubs. So we have these small-scale slips. You can see the separation from where they begin, where that bare soil faces, and they just kind of slip down a little bit. But instead of bringing in big equipment and moving that soil back up, it's not to that point quite yet. And we try to catch it by anchoring it with these roots. So we have elderberry, buttonbush, some willow trees, anything native to that area with good and high water utilization, deep penetrating roots, and they don't grow so high that we don't have large oak trees growing on top of them right away. But yeah, that's kind of a cool little thing we did. And we actually, towards the end of the summer, decided to take some of our own cuttings and transplants and we built a greenhouse right next to an oil and gas office, which is slightly unheard of, an oil and gas company saying, hey, go build a greenhouse for some reclamation work. So it was really cool that Summit let us do that. And we were just kind of monitoring and experimenting with the root systems, which ones established quickly. And we used all sorts of things from berries to rosebushes, anything we could find on the right-of-way to see if things took off. And we'll just kind of, we'll play with that in the next growing season out on the right-of-way. On the left-hand side in the greenhouse, we have species like crown vetch, which is something a lot of people, especially out there, stay away from. It's invasive, but it's actually in their recommended stabilization mixes. So that's again, thinking outside of the box with your vegetation. It may be invasive, but you come to those agreements where is it more important to stabilize this mountainside where you could have a detrimental slip that breaks a pipeline and then we have a bigger issue. So there's a lot of different moving parts and it's a very complex situation. And Harold can go into detail about this other larger slip that we did. So yeah, that's what we were looking at. We went out early last spring and looked at some of these historical issues that unfortunately are systemic within a lot of these right-of-ways to try and identify what was happening, what were some of the key factors actually involved in the creation of them and what potential methods could be used to restore some of these areas. Like Sam mentioned, trying to utilize vegetation in several of these areas where we are making that transition from what historically had been a wooded environment to something that now is going to be a grass. It was absolutely critical that we looked at vegetation or made that effort to utilize vegetation that and somehow mimic some of the structure that had been in that soil prior to the right-of-way coming through. In addition to that, there were still issues or areas to where we needed to look at a more civil or excavation and backfill approach. And one of the things that we've done differently this year is we actually brought in a design team and had them create repair options, various repair options for this specific slip that you can see on the slide. What that enables us to do is that our contractor now had the opportunity to actually reference something. We actually went in addition to that as far as having an engineer design actually went through and brought out soil sampling so that we could see exactly how compaction is achieved. And I think the benefits of that on this specific project and I think Sam has another slide of it, we're actually extraordinary. We've worked on that slope for the last four years. And this year has really been successful. The work that the crews done in the field, the flexibility we had with the design team, I think it's gonna play benefits moving forward not only in this location, but on how we view and some of these similar conditions throughout our system. Yeah, like Harold said, this is the third time trying to reclaim the site with $4 million spent on it. And it's just the same cookie cutter solution of putting that soil back and you can see blanket and stilt fence and a mess on the left-hand side. There's concrete barriers there to hold things up. And that being the third time, it's obviously not working. The middle photo was taken in September of this year after we finished with our series of benches and tile drainage, making a good foundation for that with the engineered approach. And on the right-hand side is one month later, I believe, after hydro seating. So that vegetation is insane, the amount that's covered and it looks so much better. And the most recent reclamation that we conducted was actually the most cost-effective. So if you put in the days of walking up and down those slopes, getting your cardio in and taking samples and looking at rock depth and doing your delineation, you can get the bang for your buck. I mean, that's essentially what happened here. Yeah, that is absolutely phenomenal. Yeah, and then this slide just goes back to, Harold and I have been researching vegetation on the East Coast and the Midwest and Colorado and just trying to find some new and innovative species and ideas. And he found a good article about cutting down trees and you guys can read this on your own time if you'd like, but stripping a bunch of trees that have been here for years, it affects the ecosystem, not just the above ground, but things below ground and then you affect the below ground and it's just like a cycle. And just the last bullet point is dropping seeds from a tree planting drone isn't gonna fix the problem. These things aren't just cosmetic on the surface. They're pretty complex and putting nature back into it is how we attack these. And I think developing your contractor base, Harold, he excels at this, he knows who he likes to use and what resources he likes to use. Harold, do you have anything on that? Yeah, I think that's another really key component of it is not only having a broad contractor base, but having a contractor base that works so well together. And I think over time, that's how it's developed. I think that the individuals within the contractor group that we routinely draw from recognize not only their strengths, but they've come to respect the skills and the strengths of others. I think oftentimes we'll look at that and from an operator standpoint, there can be pressure to find that one-stop shop, that single source provider. And that really is difficult in this day and age to find the environmental sciences expertise, to find the microbial guys with DNA baron R&R or the microbial fanaticism that Mark Simbock with BioLensis has. It really is interesting. And at the end of the day, the success, if any, that we've had is literally a result of these guys have been absolutely dedicated to what they do. And it's appreciated from an operator's standpoint. So I guess our main take home is delineation. Again, just like last year, I think we're trying to drive that home. Being flexible with your options and thinking of new and innovative, creative ideas and avoiding that dig and haul method at all costs. If you see an opportunity, take it and take it and run with something different. So I know we've reached, we've gone past our time, but we appreciate you sticking around and hope that this was somewhat interesting for you, seeing some new things and you can take some questions now. Unless Harold has anything final to say. No, no. Sam and Harold, we do appreciate you, appreciate your time and your expertise and sharing that with us. I think Miranda has a question of the Q&A section, Miranda? Yeah, we have a few questions. The first one is, at the beginning, you talked about experience and a lot of it only gets handed down verbally within a company or workplace or at a workshop conference such as this event. If you're lucky to get chosen to speak, is there a place where successful stories can be placed, written in photograph format for other people with similar problems to see? So I think that's maybe more of a vague question, but what are your guys' thoughts on something like that? That's a really good question, because I'll admit that a lot of my experience has come from Todd and Shane and Shiloh at Stealth Energy. I learn from them every day out on the construction side of things. So I guess one thing, it might be kind of weird, but LinkedIn or social media, different websites, you kind of just people post their new ideas that they're doing, I know we do. So I find new things on there every day, like, oh, hey, that's kind of cool. How could that be incorporated into ours? They post pictures and videos and articles. So that's one suggestion I have. Another question related to that equation is, can it include a reiteration of that second half of the equation? So we have multiple stages of revegetation, multiple stages of amendments, et cetera. And I think you guys touched on that with some of your case studies at the end, but if you wanna expand. Yeah, absolutely. That short-term versus long-term, that is absolutely what's gonna happen. And trying to be able to conceptualize or visualize it, although I love the equation concept, that trying to actually create a figure that encompassed what that would actually look like. I don't know if my monitor's widened. But yeah, you're absolutely right. When you look at it, the short-term versus long-term decision-making process, specifically related to vegetation, how that changes and evolves, that's absolutely a critical fact. This one's for Harold and Will. Oh, Sam, do you have something to add? No, no. Okay. What are the costs per cubic yard for land farming petroleum contaminated soils? So right now on the project for middle cottonwood, we set an initial budget target of $78 per cubic yard. If we can keep the actual land farm location immediately adjacent to potentially these impacted soils, which raises a lot of other questions that I don't have good answers for, I believe that we could significantly reduce that and potentially reduce that even further down to a less than 50 mark. And the benefit or the caveat here is, I believe that our remediated product is now literally topsoil. So it actually has a value too. Now, I haven't had a conversation just for full disclosure here with a landowner actually requesting, well, even with the state requesting to reuse these impacted soils, but I believe the potential's there. Thank you, Harold. Did you incorporate or consider biological inoculates into the slope reclamation or to reintroduce any beneficial microbial species such as the fungal species you referenced? Not on the saltwater side. Other than I think that is a potential component of the SA-1000, but we haven't began last fall bench tests in our trailer. Matter of fact, the last slide, you can see some of the containers that have some of those bench tests to be able to identify what potentially is happening there. But at this point, no, we haven't. Harold, I think that question is based on slope reclamation in Ohio and West Virginia. And we, yeah, but your answer is valid too. We didn't test that theory yet just because that was kind of our first, like, will these species even take? Is it going to work? But I think that's a huge thing to address in the next season when we look at the new slips that happened over the year and even the ones that we did, be huge. And one last question. But how did you decide to use lambs quarter one? And then second part of that, do you have data on how it has improved your revegetation success in the projects you've used it on? So on the lambs quarter, we went through in 2016 and done a fairly comprehensive vegetation study throughout. Obviously we couldn't study other produced water impacts, but we did study naturally occurring saline seeps and pools throughout the little muddy. And what we were looking at primarily there were various species. What was actually present at the border? How did the composition of those plant communities changes we got further away? And one of the species that we identified that was present regularly was the lambs quarter. Now, of course, Kosha was also present, but Kosha is historically difficult to control. Whereas I don't believe we're seeing the same control issues related to the lambs quarter. But to get back to our question, how we identified it was during that initial species survey that we've done in the little muddy. As far as soil chemistry, we have begun focusing last year would have been one of the most recent times here in North Dakota where our sampling has focused tremendously on soil health aspects. And I think that we will have a better picture from a data perspective on exactly what we're seeing there. But that was a change that we made on all of our remediation projects. Well, company-wide is that now we're sampling for a very comprehensive suite of soil health parameters. Sam can touch on that. I don't have much time. Well, that's all the questions we have. Toby, do you have any final thoughts as we wrap up today? And thank you, Sam and Harold so much for joining us. Yes, thank you everyone for listening. And thanks for all you work for. Thanks again, Sam and Harold, appreciate you sharing with us. Thank you for those of you that attended today. I appreciate that. A couple of things next week, it's using technology to enhance reclamation.