Man camps in the city limits

The city of Williston enacted two ordinances that would ban man camps within its city limits. Target Logistics and Halliburton sued in federal court. They said, among other things, that Williston was discriminated unconstitutionally against out-of-state people and companies, favoring its own local people. Later, Weatherford joined the suit.

Now, Target Logistics and Halliburton are dismissed out of the case, but Weatherford is pressing on.

Read about it in "Second of 3 companies drops crew camp suit," Jamie Kelly, Williston Herald, July 20, 2018.

Man camps in city limits have been a problem before, particularly related to fire safety. You can read about it a North Dakota Supreme Court decision on Justia, summarized by Justia as follows:

Black Gold Oil Field Services, LLC v. City of Williston

Justia Opinion Summary

The City of Williston shut down a man camp because of the lack of a fire protection system. Black Gold Oil Field Services applied and received multiple extensions for time to install the system, and finally got approved for a water tank (first step in the installation). At a City meeting, the City fire chief recommended shutting down the camp because it didn't seem like much progress was being made to install the system. The City accepted recommendation and shut down the camp. Black Gold filed for an injunction to stop the City from shutting its camp. The Supreme Court concluded that Black Gold failed to establish a substantial probability of succeeding on the merits of its underlying lawsuit against Williston and the City Commission and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Black Gold's request for a preliminary injunction. ​