Headline Not Particularly Helpful -- July 15, 2019

Updates

July 20, 2019: a breath of fresh air. After the misleading headline and poor writing regarding a recent "pipeline leak/spill" (see original post), The Bismarck Tribune did a thousand-percent better with report of a second, similar leak, again east of Williston. Story here. Marked improvements:

• headline clearly states it was "produced water," not oil
• the lede provides very good description of location in general (3 miles southwest of Epping, and specifically (pastureland)
• in the lede includes owner of the pipeline
• leads with amount of leak in barrels (which we like but is not the industry standard) and then provides the industry standard (in gallons)
• really, really good reporting with perfect headline

Original Post

 
The Bismarck Tribune has a headline today: "Williams County pipeline leak spills into Missouri River tributary." Two things the headline conveniently left out:

• it was a "produced water" pipeline, not an oil pipeline (but yes, produced water probably has some oil in it)
• the name of the tributary (all we got was "about 20 miles east of Williston; in this day and age, someone would have the exact GPS coordinates)

It appears the leak occurred "on/in" the ground and then an unknown amount of the produced water made its way to a tributary of the Missouri River; this is much different than a pipeline transiting (above, below, or through a waterway).

I'm glad these stories still make headlines: it tells me such spills are incredibly rare, to still get a headline above the fold on the front page.

This particular pipeline was owned by a midstream company involved in wastewater disposal; it was reported the same day it happened; and, regulators are already in place to observe the clean-up and mitigation.

My hunch: it will be a non-story by tomorrow, and we will be fortunate to get some type of follow-up through the Tribune.