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equirements now, and it also provides us an
economic development tool,” notes Kessel.
Treated water will be sold to a local farmer,
as it has “tremendous fertilizer value,”
he explains. He says it will also be used in
fracking, a technique used in the oil industry
where water is mixed with sand and chemicals,
and the mixture is injected at high pressure
into a wellbore to create small fractures.
Treated water will also be piped to the
nearby Dakota Prairie Refinery, about seven
miles west of Dickinson, ND, and wastewater
from the neighboring community of
South Heart, ND will also be treated at the
facility.
Olson says there is also the opportunity
to treat wastewater from man
camps, as it would be much more financially
feasible for such small camps and
small communities to truck the waste to
Dickinson’s facility than to try to build
their own.
“We’re trying to conserve potable water
and then reuse it for industrial purposes,”
says Olson. “That’s pretty unique in this area
of the country.”
Construction has begun on this
new state-of-the-art facility, and phase
one is expected to be completed this
October.
GET TO KNOW
OUR EXPERTS
Karla
Olson
Karla Olson
is an associate
with Apex Engineering
Group.
As a wastewater
treatment and
process specialist at Apex, she has led
several wastewater treatment projects
throughout the region. She holds a
master’s degree in environmental engineering
and has more than 13 years
of experience in the evaluation, planning
and design of numerous wastewater
treatment and collection system
facilities.
Karla became interested in the chemical
and biological treatment side of civil
engineering during a summer job and
loves that her work allows her to see a
project through conceptualization to
construction.
“People come to you with problems
and you help them solve problems,” she
says. Her experience includes all aspects
of planning, design, construction administration
and operations, as well as funding
and grant writing.
Shawn
Kessel
Shawn Kessel
is serving his fifth
year as city administrator
with the
City of Dickinson,
ND, after working
in the same position for nine years in another
community in North Dakota. He
holds an undergraduate degree in social
work and a master’s degree in business
administration. Kessel worked for years
in social work, where he worked his way
up into the administration of a health
care facility and sees similarities in the
work.
“It’s almost a calling, because you’re
working for the benefit of a whole,” he
says. “Sometimes it’s not always appreciated
by everybody but it’s used by everybody.”
Kessel is originally from Dickinson,
ND, so it was appealing for him to return
home and give back to a place that
had given so much to him.
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