Summit County Citizens Voice

The Yellowstone River.

Water samples collected all the way to North Dakota, lab results due Friday

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — EPA officials said Wednesday that aerial surveys of the Yellowstone River are showing signs of oil as far as 45 miles downstream of the spill site at Laurel Montana. Visit the EPA website for the spill.

A pipeline that burst early last weekend may have spilled more than 42,000 gallons of oil into the water before it was shut off by operator ExxonMobil.

The agency is taking water samples even farther downstream, but doesn’t expect lab results until Friday, according to Matthew Allen, a spokesman for the agency who arrived at the scene Wednesday.

“We’re doing sampling all the way down the river … clear into North Dakota,” Allen said.

The reach of the river affected by the spill is home to pallid sturgeon, an endangered species, and sportsmen have voiced concern about impacts to the river’s famed trout fishery, and streamside ranchers are also worried about potential impacts to their operations.

The agency still has no idea exactly how much oil has spilled or how much has been recovered, and Allen said flood-level flows have hampered not only the clean-up, but observers trying to move along the shoreline, looking for oil.

Pursuant to the Clean Water Act, the EPA Wednesday formally ordered to ExxonMobil to take a number of clean-up and restoration activities as a result of the oil spill into the Yellowstone River.

EPA is coordinating its response actions with the Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service and state and local agencies and will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure ExxonMobil, as the responsible party, addresses any and all potential impacts of this spill.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is responsible for determining the cause of the pipeline failure and has been onsite since Saturday.

Filed under: Colorado, energy, Environment, flooding, oil drilling, Summit County Colorado, Summit County news Tagged: | Clean Water Act, EPA response to Yellowstone river oil spill, ExxonMobil, ExxonMobil Montana oil spill, Laurel Montana, Montana oil spill, North Dakota, Oil spill, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Yellowstone River, Yellowstone River oil spill