(Note: This is the final of a six-part series on "Bakken Spinoffs" airing Thursdays through January 9th on "Montana Evening Edition.")
The flares from oil rigs light up the night sky in the Bakken region.
Burning off these polluting gases is a by-product of extracting the oil in fracking operations.
Not only do the flares increase the emissions of the rigs, the oil companies are wasting natural resources that could be sold.
It has been a cost of doing business in the fracking world.
Now, some Montana engineers are trying to rein that cost back in.
For the last five weeks, we’ve been bringing you stories of side effects of the Bakken oil boom.
We wrap up our series on Bakken spinoffs tonight, with a story of how these flares have ignited some home-grown ingenuity.