2017 Series on the Western Area Water Supply

The following is a 4-part journalistic series on the history of the Western Area Water Supply leading up to the 2017 Legislative Session.

North Dakota’s Newest Big Bad Wolf

The following was written and reported by Jason Spiess of The Crude Life Network. Spiess is the host of Building the Bakken and the Mondak Oil Report which air on many radio stations in North Dakota. This article is disseminated with the expressed permission of author.

Throughout history the practice of eminent domain has been abused in the United States. Abused to the point where the parties taking the land were colloquially referred as the “big bad wolf”. The first big bad wolf was the railroad.

The process was quite simple, the railroad is considered a project for the public good and if you do not accept what the railroad deems fair compensation, then they will take it by force.

Back then, what many still considered the Wild West, there was no court system to speak of, so the railroad was given the power by the United States of judge, jury and executioner in seizing private property. It literally was the wild west because many of the states and cities…