Defenders of the Black Hills  - Hesapa O'nakijin

The following is the comments sent from Defenders of the Black Hills to the South Dakota State Historical Society and SD DENR.

Please consider these our comments regarding Oil & Gas Order No. 17-2010 for Nakota Energy LLC located in the vicinity of Bear Butte.

Please find below, our comments to the state of South Dakota and the National Park Service regarding the planned oil wells to be drilled near Bear Butte, a National Historic Landmark. Please send your own individual letter to them also.

Defenders of the Black Hills

PO Box 2003
Rapid City, SD 57709
March 30, 2011

Jason Haug, Historic Preservation Director
South Dakota State Historical Society
State Historic Preservation Office
900 Governors Drive
Pierre, SD 57501-2217

SD DENR
Fred Steece, Oil & Gas Supervisor
PMB 2020
Joe Foss Building
523 E. Capitol
Pierre, SD 57501

Re: Oil & Gas Order No. 17-2010 for Nakota Energy LLC

Dear Sirs:

Please consider these our comments regarding Oil & Gas Order No. 17-2010 for Nakota Energy LLC located in the vicinity of Bear Butte.

Bear Butte was given National Historic Landmark designation on December 21, 1981, and The NPS is responsible by law for monitoring the condition of National Historic Landmarks. (NPS.gov - National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Program)

Furthermore: National Historic Landmarks are buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that have been determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be nationally significant in American history and culture. Many of the most renowned historic properties in the Nation are Landmarks. Mount Vernon, Pearl Harbor, the Apollo Mission Control Center, Alcatraz, and the Martin Luther King Birthplace in Atlanta, Georgia are Landmarks that illustrate important contributions to the Nation's historical development. (NPS.gov - National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Program)

It is an honor for the state of South Dakota to have under its State Parks System such an historic landmark.

However, Bear Butte is a National Historic Landmark and it must have National input on anything that might harm or impair the significance of this National Historic Landmark.

The drilling and planned placement of many more oil wells and storage tanks so near to this National Historic Landmark with the sounds, smells, and visual impact as well as chemical pollution from the trucks and mechanical operation of such oil wells so near to this National Historic Landmark, require NATIONAL hearings be conducted by the National Park Service, not state hearings by the South Dakota Board of Minerals. This appears to be an effort to take the protection responsibility away from the National Park Service.

Therefore, procedures by the SD Board of Minerals must be stopped until the National Park Service has had time to complete the NEPA process on the impacts to Bear Butte, a National Historic Landmark.

Sincerely,

Charmaine White Face, Coordinator

Cc: National Park Service, National Historic Landmark Program

Please send letters about Bear Butte demanding the National Park Service conduct National hearings on whether oil wells and oil storage tanks should be so close to this National Historic Landmark. Thank you.

NPS Midwest Regional Office
601 Riverfront Dr.
Omaha NE 68102-4221

FAX: 402-661-1982

National Center for Cultural Resources
National Historic Landmarks Program
1849 C Street NW (Org. 2280)
Washington DC 20240

Fax: 202-371-2229