© AP Photo/Jim UrquhartCleanup workers use oil absorbent materials along side the Yellowstone River in Laurel, Mont., Wednesday July 6, 2011. This cleanup of a slightly larger spill was difficult enough without fighting around frozen ice.
On Saturday morning, a pipeline in Montana
spilled up to 50,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, the pipeline's operator confirmed Sunday night.
Some residents are
reportedly smelling and tasting oil in their drinking water, causing the EPA to test water samples and the city water plant to cease drawing water from the river.
The 12-inch diameter steel pipe breached and spilled anywhere from 12,600 to 50,000 gallons of oil nine miles upriver from the town of Glendive, with an unknown amount of it spilling into the partially frozen river, according to a statement from Bridger Pipeline LLC. The company said the spill occurred at 10 a.m. and they "
shut in" the flow of oil just before 11 a.m. - meaning that though the pipeline section could still empty itself of its contents, no new addition oil would flow into the spilled area.
"Oil has made it into the river," Bridger spokesperson Bill Salvin
confirmed to the AP on Monday. "We do not know how much at this point." Observers spotted oil, some of which was trapped under the ice, up to
60 miles downstream from Glendive. Paul Peronard, the EPA's on-scene coordinator, said crews were attempting to use booms to prevent the spill from spreading further but the ice on top of the river was forcing them to "hunt and peck" through it.
This
photo from the Billings Gazette shows the oil visible through the icy river from the air.
Clean-up crews were en route to the site on Sunday afternoon after local, state, and federal levels were notified. The pipeline sits at least eight feet below the river bed. There are concerns that the water supply could be compromised, though the City of Glendive Water Plant said on Sunday that nothing unusual had been detected.
"I am not saying the water is unsafe. I am not saying it is safe," said Dawson County Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator Mary Jo Gehnert,
according to MTN News. "We are waiting for officials to arrive who can make that decision."
"We think it was caught pretty quick, and it was shut down,"
said Montana Governor Steve Bullock spokesperson Dave Parker, noting that the river was frozen over near the spill, which could help isolate the spill.
Comment: A troubling development, for sure. But one we all should have seen coming: Holocaust 2.0: Coming soon!