Source: Dow Jones News Service, January 19, 2015
Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com
Oil from a broken pipeline has seeped into the Yellowstone River and contaminated a Montana town’s water supply, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday evening.
The agency described the crude spill of roughly 1,200 barrels as significant. It occurred Saturday morning less than 10 miles south of Glendive, a town of about 5,000 residents which is roughly 40 miles west of the North Dakota border.
“The initial results of samples taken from the City of Glendive’s drinking water system indicate the presence of hydrocarbons at elevated levels, and water intakes in the river have been closed,” the EPA said in a statement.
Federal and state and city governments are working to secure an alternative drinking water supply for residents and to develop a plan to flush the water system, the agency said.
The release was from Bridger Pipeline LLC’s 12-inch Poplar line, which can carry 42,000 barrels a day of crude from the Bakken formation and runs from Canada south to Baker, Montana. Bridger Pipeline is a subsidiary of True Cos., a privately held Wyoming-based company.
The company said earlier Monday that more than 50 people were working to clean up the spill. The EPA said containment structures were being placed about 30 miles downstream from the spill site.
The company said in a statement that the pipeline was shut down within an hour of the leak.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality said a flyover inspection by the company spotted sheens on the river miles away from where the initial spill occurred, including at a drinking-water intake 25 miles north of Glendive.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock declared a state of emergency in two counties along the river on Monday morning.
Late last year, Bridger Pipeline received a warning letter from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration, alleging that the company didn’t follow proper reporting procedures when it inspected the Poplar pipeline in 2012. The agency didn’t impose a fine. The company hasn’t filed a response with PHMSA and didn’t immediately respond to questions about the warning.
In 2011, Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Silvertip pipeline spilled an estimated 1,500 barrels of oil into the Yellowstone River near Laurel, Mont., about 230 miles west of Glendive. Federal regulators levied a $1.7 million penalty against Exxon for the incident.