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?