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.”

DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.