North Dakota
EPA bureaucracy gets in the way of protecting environment, North Dakota official says
Jim Semerad, left, and Marty Haroldson of the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality were part of a panel discussion Sept. 4, 2024, at a conference in Bismarck. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)
Wildfire smoke wafted over North Dakota on Wednesday. For Jim Semerad of the Department of Environmental Quality, that will mean more work.
That’s because the department will have to show the federal Environmental Protection Agency that the smoke is actually coming from wildfires and not some other source of air pollution.
“We will go through a great deal of effort to prove something we already know,” said Semerad, who leads the department’s air quality division.
Semerad and others from the department were speaking Wednesday at a North Dakota Regional Environmental Conference in Bismarck. The conference was organized by the Air and Waste Management Association.
Semerad said staying on top of the ballooning amount of federal regulations can make it difficult for the agency to focus on what is really important — ensuring good environmental health.
The department sent a news release Wednesday morning advising the public of the air quality issues because of the wildfire smoke.
Semerad said EPA staff are well-intentioned but EPA bureaucracy gets in the way of protecting environmental quality.
“Our biggest problem might be the EPA,” Semerad said.
Chuck Hyatt, of DEQ’s waste management division, said one of the biggest roadblocks to working with the EPA is a lack of trust.
“They don’t necessarily trust what is going on in certain states,” Hyatt said. “And I wonder about that. Where does that come from?”
North Dakota has several ongoing legal battles with the EPA, including being the lead state challenging a mercury emissions rule that North Dakota officials have said threatens the state’s lignite coal industry.
Wednesday’s agenda included a session by Erik Wallevand, a lawyer in the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office, on tips for challenging federal regulations.
With factors such as federal regulations, retirements and other staff turnover, Semerad said something new for the department is struggling to keep up with clean air permits.
Semerad said there may be a request for more staff in the 2025 legislative session.
Semerad acknowledged that some of the workload comes from Mother Nature, with North Dakota being a state of extreme temperatures and weather and random events, such as wildfires.
“It’s kind of an invisible thing,” Semerad said of the work created by wildfires. “No additional inspections, no additional improvements to air quality. It’s just a reporting requirement.
“I guess that might be something that the Legislature needs to better understand.”
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North Dakota
How to watch the Montana Grizzlies vs. North Dakota Fighting Hawks
![How to watch the Montana Grizzlies vs. North Dakota Fighting Hawks How to watch the Montana Grizzlies vs. North Dakota Fighting Hawks](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/2757f81/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1008+0+6/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F68%2Fc8%2Fbfdfad164759add6209876282173%2Fmontana-grizzlies-hm.png)
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Montana Grizzlies hit the road for the first time this college football season for a top-25 matchup with former Big Sky Conference rival North Dakota.
The Griz, who opened their season last week with a 29-24 win over Missouri State, are ranked fourth, while the Fighting Hawks are ranked No. 23 after opening with a 21-3 loss at FBS Iowa State last week.
Montana and North Dakota are scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. (MT) inside the Alerus Center.
The game will be broadcast by Midco Sports and air on the MTN channel across Montana. Coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. with the Scripps Sports Saturday Showdown Pregame Show. Learn more about the MTN channel and where to find it.
The game is also available to stream on ESPN+ or Midco Sports Plus.
Click here for details on how to watch Montana State’s game versus Maine.
North Dakota
North Dakota Museum of Art to display pieces from its permanent collection
![North Dakota Museum of Art to display pieces from its permanent collection North Dakota Museum of Art to display pieces from its permanent collection](https://cdn.forumcomm.com/dims4/default/c714d79/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1671x1381+0+0/resize/1290x1066!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum-communications-production-web.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F58%2Fd9%2F2f57fa554ce383d50e0d939c969a%2Fmelvinsmith.jpg)
GRAND FORKS — The North Dakota Museum of Art is planning to showcase more than 30 pieces of art from its Permanent Collection in an upcoming exhibition, officials have announced.
The public is invited to an opening reception for “Stories of Place: Select Recent Acquisitions” from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, at the museum, 261 Centennial Dr., on the UND campus.
A public lecture by the exhibition’s curator Anna Sigridur Arnar is set for 7 p.m. on Oct. 8. A reception is planned for 6:30 p.m. Arnar, full-time curator of modern and contemporary art at the North Dakota Museum of Art, holds a Ph.D. degree, with honors, in art history from the University of Chicago.
Contributed / North Dakota Museum of Art
The exhibit, which will be on display through Dec. 1, “is another in our series showcasing the museum’s extensive Permanent Collection,” said Brian Lotfhus, membership and marketing coordinator. “Since the late 1980s, the museum has built a collection of over 3,000 pieces of contemporary art.
“The collection has grown, mostly from gifts from artists, pieces acquired from exhibitions the museum has curated, and through generous donors that want to help the museum build a world-class collection,” Lofthus said. “Most recently, an anonymous donor has contributed on a large scale, (these donations constitute) the majority of the current exhibition.”
The “Stories of Place” exhibit draws on the rich range of artwork recently acquired by the museum, Lofthus said. The artworks include collage, sculpture, photography, painting and quilts.
Contributed / North Dakota Museum of Art
The selected works provide opportunities to reflect on various meanings of the word “place” in the visual arts and storytelling.
“Fundamentally, ‘place’ is the wellspring of human (and non-human) relations; it is a site where stories are formed and reformed,” the announcement said. It is “a container of experience, memory and the imagination, thereby providing rich terrain for artists.”
The exhibition explores specific locations such as Midwest farmlands, the American South and the vibrant Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Some pieces in the exhibit delve into the “spirit” of place, capturing not only the physical likeness but also abstract narratives tied to a place. Others encourage viewers to listen to the “language of the land,” especially when a place is at risk of disappearing, or becoming inextricably altered or damaged, according to the museum announcement.
Contributed / North Dakota Museum of Art
The artists featured in the exhibition “invite us to consider how place shapes and is shaped by personal memories, imagined realms and the evolving language of the land,” the museum said.
The artists whose work will be displayed include: Diyan Achjadi, Vancouver, British Columbia; LeXander Bryant, Nashville, Tennessee; Edward Burtynsky, Toronto, Ontario; Jamal Cyrus, Houston, Texas; Peter Jemison, Victor, New York; Carolyn Mazloomi, West Chester, Ohio; Teo Nguyen, Minneapolis; Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Lagos, Nigeria; Helen Oji, New York City; Eric-Paul Riege, Gallup, New Mexico; Cara Romero, Sante Fe, New Mexico; Rose Smith and Melvin Smith, Eagan, Minnesota; John Sonsini, Los Angeles; Suyao Tian, St. Paul, Minnesota; Margaret Wall-Romana, Golden Valley, Minnesota; and Joseph Yoakum, Chicago.
For more information, visit
https://ndmoa.com
or call the museum at 701-777-4195.
North Dakota
Three Things We Learned: North Dakota
![Three Things We Learned: North Dakota Three Things We Learned: North Dakota](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UBJ8mzRWKFvmhPu07omi0Szc00w=/0x0:3600x1885/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25602531/2168870457.jpg)
Welcome back everyone to Three Things We Learned for the 2024 season. Let’s take a look at the win over North Dakota this past weekend in the season opener.
The Passing Game is as Good as Advertised
The Cyclones started the game last week with a bang, scoring a touchdown in less than a minute with huge catches by Jaylin Noel and Jayden Higgins, which signaled an explosive start to the career of Taylor Mouser as the offensive coordinator.
We also saw what the passing game can do on long drives, as the Cyclones were able to dink and dunk their way down the field, largely getting whatever they wanted in the passing game. I think that same formula could be a major key to success for Iowa State against Iowa’s very strong defense.
I also think the Cyclones may have found their third wide receiver in Eli Green, which could prove to be a big boost going forward. Given that defenses will need to focus a ton of their attention on Noel and Higgins, having Eli Green as another option will make it near impossible to cover all of Iowa State’s passing options on a well-designed route pattern. Green plays extremely similarly to Noel, so he’s a natural fit in the offense.
Linebacker is Thin
Most Cyclone fans went into the season largely agreeing that linebacker was probably the weakest position group on the defense, and that turned out to be true on Saturday. What we didn’t know was how shaky the situation actually is, as we found out on game day that Will McLaughlin is out for an extended period of time, and Caleb Bacon went down with a significant injury in the first quarter.
Right now Kooper Ebel, Jack Sadowsky, Zach Lovett, and Cael Brezina look to likely be your top four linebackers, with Jacob Ellis and John Klosterman also getting snaps. The loss of Bacon caused a lot of issues and was likely a driving factor in the twelve-minute-long possession North Dakota was able to sustain immediately following the injury.
This week, Jon Heacock and the rest of the defensive staff will be busy getting that linebacker group stabilized and figuring out a plan to deal with Iowa’s running game and tight end Luke Lachey.
Young Talent is Abundant
Even though Iowa State is returning nineteen of twenty-two starters, there is still a significant number of young players expected to get significant snaps this season, and we saw a few of them in action Saturday.
I think Kooper Ebel and Jontez Williams both had their moments of youth, but otherwise had strong showings against North Dakota that illustrate why we’ve heard so much about them in the offseason and through camp. Ebel looked the part of blossoming into another strong player in Iowa State’s lineage of great linebackers, and Jontez Williams nearly cut off a pass to the flat and took it to the house.
Williams did admit in his postgame interview that he was guilty of getting ahead of himself and not watching the ball in before running to the endzone, which shows maturity on his part.
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