Federal documents show it took ExxonMobil nearly twice as long as it publicly disclosed to fully seal the pipeline that spilled roughly 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, the AP reports.
Details about the company's response to the Montana pipeline burst emerged late Tuesday as the Department of Transportation ordered the company bury the duct deeper beneath the riverbed, where it is buried 5 to 8 feet underground to deliver 40,000 barrels of oil a day to a refinery in Billings.
© ReutersSopping up: An emergency response crew hired by ExxonMobil cleans up the oil spill along the Yellowstone River in Laurel, Montana
© ReutersBoom time: An absorbent boom is placed to collect oil from the Yellowstone River. Documents show it took Exxon nearly twice as long as they initially stated to seal the leak
An ExxonMobil spokesman said the longer time span was based on information provided to the agency by the company and the discrepancy might have come about because Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. President Gary Pruessing was speaking without any notes in front of him when he addressed Schweitzer.
Company spokesman Alan Jeffers told AP: 'Clearly our communication with the regulator (DOT) is the one that we've got precision on'.
It was not the first time the company offered clarification of its response and assessment of the spill.
A day earlier, the company acknowledged under political pressure that the leak's impact could extend far beyond a 10-mile stretch of the river it initially said was the most affected area. The company had earlier downplayed government officials' assertions that damage was spread over dozens of miles.
The governor toured the area Tuesday as the waterway rose above flood stage and stoked fears that surging currents could push crude into undamaged areas and back channels vital to the river's prized fishery. Conditions have hampered efforts to find the cause of the break.
The river has been flowing too swiftly for crews to reach some oiled areas, and forecasters said mountain snowmelt was adding to high water levels. Officials speculated that the surge may push oil into areas that haven't yet been damaged.
Most observations have been made through aerial flights.
© ReutersHaz mat: Crews don protective clothing to battle the oil seeping along the Yellowstone River
© APGiant wipes: A worker uses oil absorbent materials to remove the pollution from the spill Wednesday
Governor Brian Schweitzer told Reuters: 'This cleanup would go a lot better if we could get accurate information from ExxonMobil'.
A few miles downriver from the broken pipe, homeowner Robert Castleberry said he had been out of his house since Saturday because of dangerous fumes from oil that the river pushed across his yard and into the crawlspace beneath his house.
Mr Castleberry's wife suffers from heart disease and the fumes gave her difficulty breathing, he said.
While he appreciated the company promising to cover the couple's immediate expenses, the retired fuel truck driver was doubtful workers would be able to clean up the black, gooey film that laced through the underbrush along the river.
He said: 'Exxon's been nothing but 100 percent with us. But when you get into brush that thick, that's going to be virtually impossible to clean'.
Company and federal officials said they have only seen oil about 25 miles downstream from the site of the break near Laurel. But Mr Schweitzer said he believes some has travelled hundreds of miles to North Dakota.
© ReutersHigh water: A view of the swollen Yellowstone River two miles down stream from the site of the oil spill in Laurel, Montana. Officials are worried flooding will push the oil farther into the basin
Representatives of ExxonMobil and the Environmental Protection Agency said they had no reports of oil beyond the town of Huntley.
Transportation officials said Tuesday that oil was observed as far downstream as 240 miles in Terry, Montana. The agency said that information was provided by ExxonMobil, but company spokesman Alan Jeffers said he was not aware of any such sighting.
Exxon planned to test the river's conditions with a jet boat, with eight more on standby if the launch is successful.
Federal regulators have ordered Exxon to make safety improvements to the 20-year-old pipeline. Among them was an order to re-bury the line to protect against external damage and assess risk where it crosses a waterway, which the company intended to comply with, Mr Jeffers said.
© ReutersOil and water: Crude mixes with water from the spill in the Yellowstone River, making a hot mess
Mr Schweitzer also ordered a review of pipelines that cross major and minor rivers in the state. Officials will look at the pipes' age, location of shut-off valves and whether they are similar to the ruptured pipe. He said the state has 88 such crossings.
Modern pipelines can be buried as much as 25 feet beneath bodies of water; ExxonMobil's Silvertip line was 5 to 8 feet below the bottom of the Yellowstone.
The line was temporarily shut down in May after Laurel officials raised concerns that it could be at risk as the Yellowstone started to rise. The company restarted the line after a day, following a review of its safety record.
Mr Schweitzer said he noticed that oil was pooling in areas near banks with slower-moving water, close to islands and cottonwood stands that support the microbes and insects that bring life to the river.
He said: 'Those riparian areas are a biological treasure trove. That's the health and wealth of the river'.
© APEcological effects: Officials worry that birds, fish and mammals downstream of the spill may be impacted
© APCleanup: Crews work to clear oil from the Yellowstone River in Laurel, Montana Tuesday. The river swelled above flood levels today, raising fears that the surge will spread thousands of gallons of oil
© APMess: An ExxonMobil pipeline near Laurel ruptured and spilled an estimated 1,000 barrels of crude into the Yellowstone River Friday. Residents downstream have gotten sick with dizziness and breathing problems
The spill also has wreaked havoc on ranching and farming operations along the Yellowstone, the longest river without a dam in the United States, which provides irrigation and drinking water for communities along its banks.
Jerry Williams, who raises livestock, wheat, alfalfa and hay on some 800 acres of land around Laurel, said high water from the river has washed oil across much of his property.
Mr Williams told Reuters: 'It was the night the river peaked, so the river water was flooded all over the place, and that brought oil all over both ranches.
'All of our grasslands... have just thick, black crude stuck to all the grass, trees, low lands'.
© APFast work: Officials are worried that floodwaters may carry oil into back channels, so they clean quickly
© APImpacted: Jim Swanson surveys the oil impact on his property in Laurel, Montana Tuesday. Farms and ranches have been inundated with crude
© APJim Swanson crosses through caution tape on his property in Laurel, Montana, after the spill
Mr Williams said: 'We get all our drinking water from our wells and for our animals.
'We don't know if we'll be able to use them since the river was high. All the groundwater, I assume, is probably contaminated. We just don't know'.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer said on Tuesday he has told Exxon and federal agencies overseeing the spill response that the state alone will decide when the cleanup is done.
The governor told Reuters via telephone, as he toured areas hit by the spill: 'The state of Montana is going to stay on this like the smell on a skunk'.
State and federal authorities had few answers to questions about the extent of oil pollution or the potential impacts on human health.
Environmental experts said it will likely take months, even years, for the ecosystem to rebound from the influx of crude.
© APSurveying damage: Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer tours oil impacted sites along side the Yellowstone River in Laurel, Montana, Tuesday
© APBillings: An ExxonMobil contractor cleans up oil along the Yellowstone River in Billings, Montana, Sunday
'It's a very significant amount of oil moving downstream right now, and oil is a toxic substance in itself. A whole suite of organisms, from mink to herons to sturgeon to dragonflies, are going to be affected as waves of oil come through'.
Concerns about petroleum contamination prompted downstream communities that rely on the river for drinking water to shut off their intake valves, but it was unclear whether residents who depend on well water had been urged to avoid drinking it.
Many state health and emergency workers had been told to direct inquiries about environmental contamination and health concerns to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA officials said on Tuesday that readings were not yet available from air and water monitors mostly downstream of the spill.
Some Montana residents have reported symptoms ranging from shortness of breath to fainting spells linked to exposure to petroleum-based chemicals.
Stacy Anderson said on Tuesday her parents, Bob and Patty Castleberry, are still living in a hotel after their home was evacuated Saturday along the Yellowstone less than a mile from the site of the ruptured pipeline.
© APClean up crews use an absorbent boom to collect oil from the Yellowstone River in Laurel
© APSopping it up: Crews work to collect the oil before it spreads out farther
© ReutersSpill: The spill may impact the Yellowstone River for years to come, as only time will tell
Ms Anderson said: 'All their clothes, the suitcase - everything smelled like solid crude oil; when my mom got away from it, her symptoms disappeared'.
She said Exxon is paying her parents' hotel bill as well as covering the cost of feed for the couple's 10 goats that have been steered away from oil-soaked grasslands.
The cause of the rupture was under investigation, but possible damage from erosion caused by unusually heavy river flows following a spring of heavy rains and runoff from record mountain snows are likely to be examined as a factor.
Exxon shut down the pipeline in May after the city of Laurel raised safety concerns due to rising river levels, but the company said it restarted the line after conducting an inspection.
© APExxon Mobil contractors put absorbent sheets over oil that came into the backyard of a home along the Yellowstone River near Laurel, Montana
© APOil swirls in a flooded gravel pit in Lockwood, Montana Saturday after a pipeline break
Exxon said its Billings, Montana oil refinery cut back production over the weekend as a result of the spill but other refineries in the area were operating normally.
The Montana oil spill is far smaller than the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year and the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989. The BP spill spewed 168 million gallons of oil and the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil.
By contrast, Exxon estimates the Montana pipeline has leaked only 42,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River.
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