Monday, September 18, 2017

Four Years Later, One Of The Largest Onshore Spills In US History -- Near Tioga, ND -- Cleanup Finally Begins -- September 18, 2017

Updates

September 23, 2017: the PennEnergy story linked below suggested that the clean-up had finaly begun -- at least that's what I thought I read. In fact, The Bismarck Tribune reports that the cleanup has been ongoing since the spill and a 4-year milestone has now been reached.
Crews are nearly done excavating soil from what remains a massive operation to clean up 20,600 barrels — 865,200 gallons — of Bakken crude that Steve Jensen discovered while harvesting wheat on Sept. 29, 2013.
Patty Jensen, surveying the progress last week, took a photo from the industrial site and hopes to stand in the same spot in two years and photograph a wheat field.
I always get a kick out of these articles. Note: it wasn't just "any old oil," but rather the highly controversial, very explosive Bakken oil.

My hunch is that the owners put up with a lot of irritation and frustration but at the end of the day, the heirs are probably going to come out quite well, financially.

What amazes me: 20,000 bbls estimated in this spill, and the state produces more than 1 million bbls daily.

Original Post 

From PennEnergy, data points,
  • occurred in September, 2013
  • discovered by farmer checking out his fields
  • covered 13 acres -- about the size of 10 football fields
  • crews now working "around the clock"
  • so far, 1 million tons of earth have been excavated
  • digging as deep as 60 feet
  • responsible party: Tesoro -- now known as Andeavor
  • a lightning strike may have caused the rupture in the 6-inch-diameter steel pipeline
  • pipeline runs from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, ND, near the Canadian border
  • authorities: no wildlife or drinking water sources affected
  • cost: estimated at $73 million
  • originally: company though it only 750 bbls; to be cleaned up in two years at a cost of $4 million
  • now estimated to be 20,000 bbls
And then this:
The spill wasn't reported to the public until after state regulators — who had known about the spill for nearly two weeks — were questioned by The Associated Press.
What's wrong with that picture?

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