An oil refinery that opponents fear could sully the air quality of Theodore Roosevelt National Park has cleared a legal hurdle as it moves closer to final approval/NPS, Dave Bruner

A state district court has upheld a decision by the North Dakota Department of Health to permit an oil refinery a small handful of miles from the main entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Principals for Meridian Energy, which wants to build the Davis Refinery about three miles from the park's South Unit entrance, maintain that it would be the cleanest refinery ever built in the United States. They say the state-of-the-art facility would be located on 620 acres of land east of Theodore Roosevelt, between Fryburg and Belfield. The location is adjacent to a BNSF rail loading facility at Fryburg; the rail line actually runs through the refinery site. 

As envisioned, the refinery would be supported by a mix of residential and commercial development that opponents maintain would dwarf most, if not all, towns in southwestern North Dakota, and potentially could impact the national park's air quality, soundscape, and viewshed.

In a lawsuit challenging the permit the Health Department issued last year, the Dakota Resource Council, Environmental Law & Policy Center, and National Parks Conservation Association opposed the state’s classification of the industrial refinery as a “minor” source of pollution rather than as a “major” source. The permit granted by North Dakota does not provide needed assurances that Meridian Energy will keep pollution to required levels, they argue.

But District Judge Dann Greenwood dismissed those concerns in his 26-page ruling (attached below) handed down this week. The judge acknowledged that he was not an expert in pollution controls and was "not capable of articulating why certain parts of the record either support or detract from one side of the issue or the other in this case," but he was confident the state agency was competent in managing the permitting for a refinery capable of producing 55,000 barrels of fuel products per day.

"From a review of (the Health Department's) responses to comments and its brief ... it appears that NDDOH has both acknowledged an appreciation of the requirements of the law and demonstrated that the permit and the conditions set forth therein satisfy applicable regulations," Judge Greenwood wrote.

National Park Service officials, most of whom have been furloughed during the ongoing partial government shutdown, could not be reached Thursday for comment. In the past, Theodore Roosevelt Superintendent Wendy Ross has said the refinery would "forever change the visitor experience in the South Unit."

National Park Service officials created this map to show how visible the proposed Davis Refinery would be from Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The refinery would be visible from park areas marked in red, according to the NPS. The park is the tan colored area.

At NPCA, officials were mulling their options for continuing the battle against the refinery.

The plaintiffs had argued that the air permit granted Meridian fails to provide adequate limits for the refinery’s pollution and doesn’t adequately monitor pollutants as necessary to protect local air quality. Following the judge's ruling, they said he "ignored problems with the permit and neglected North Dakota citizens and visitors need for clean air."

“The court ruling effectively gives a green light for the Davis Refinery to pollute the air at Theodore Roosevelt National Park and surrounding communities,” said Stephanie Kodish, NPCA's clean air program director. “North Dakota Department of Health needs to be held accountable for issuing a weak permit and allowing the Davis refinery to continue as planned.”

At the Environmental Law & Policy Center, attorney Scott Strand said "the record is clear that the Department of Health knew that Meridian’s permit application was not credible, but let it go anyway."