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Fracking in North Dakota: Women in the drilling boomtowns

September 24, 2014 /

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North Dakota’s oil industry currently employs more than 40,000 people. Williston, formerly a sleepy town in the northwestern part of the state, has rocketed on the scene as the sixth largest city in the 48th most populous state primarily because of the controversial oil and gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing technology or "fracking."

The recent ability to tap into the Bakken formation–a thin but wide shale layer that sits two miles along the Williston Basin–opened an opportunity for the town to take a seat at the head of the oil-drilling table. It’s now poised to be the biggest boomtown in the country, with a population estimated to soar from 10,000 to just fewer than 50,000 by 2025.

By Nicole Crowder

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2014/09/23/fracking-in-north-dakota-women-in-the-drilling-boomtowns/?hpid=z9