Massive 2013 Oil Spill in North Dakota Still Not Cleaned Up
FILE – This Oct. 11, 2013 file photo shows cleanup at the site of a Tesoro Corp. pipeline break that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil into a Tioga, N.D., wheat field. The massive oil spill still isn’t fully cleaned up three years and three months after it happened. The company responsible hasn’t even set a date for completion. Some say that one of the largest onshore oil spills recorded in the U.S. serves as a cautionary example, especially given a recent pipeline break about 150 miles south and ongoing debates over the four-state Dakota Access pipeline. (AP Photo/Kevin Cederstrom, File)
Three years and three months later, a massive oil spill in North Dakota still isn’t fully cleaned up. The company responsible hasn’t even set a date for completion.
Though crews have been working around the clock to deal with the Tesoro Corp. pipeline break, which happened in a wheat field in September 2013, less than a third of the 840,000 gallons that spilled has been recovered — or ever will be, North Dakota Health Department environmental scientist Bill Suess said.
A farmer, Steve Jenkins, who’d smelled the crude oil for days, discovered the spill in his northwestern North Dakota field near Tioga — his combines’ tires were covered in it.
While the nearest home was a half-mile away and the state said no water sources were contaminated and no wildlife hurt, one of the largest onshore oil spills recorded in the U.S. serves for some as a cautionary example, especially given a recent pipeline break about 150 miles south and ongoing debates over the four-state Dakota Access pipeline.
“What happened to us happened and we can’t go back,” said Patty Jensen, Steve’s wife. This month’s pipeline break in Belfield, which belched an estimated 176,000 gallons of oil into a creek that feeds into the Little Missouri River, a tributary of the Missouri River, really rankled her.
“But I get really upset when I hear of a new one and I wonder what is being done to prevent these spills,” she said.
Both the Tesoro break and the Belfield break occurred on 6-inch steel pipelines — a part of a large network pipelines that crisscross western North Dakota’s oil patch. By comparison, the Dakota Access pipeline is made of 30-inch steel and will carry nearly 20 million gallons daily.
The Tesoro spill was not far from where oil was first discovered in North Dakota in 1951.The Texas-based company and federal regulators have said a lightning strike may have caused the 2013 rupture in the pipeline, which runs from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, near the Canadian border.
North Dakota regulators initially thought just 750 barrels of oil was involved in the spill, but later updated the amount exponentially. They also expanded the affected acreage from about 7 — the size of seven football fields — to about 13 acres, Suess said. The cleanup has cost Tesoro more than $49 million to date and is expected to top $60 million, according to recent filings to the state.
Tesoro spokeswoman Destin Singleton said she could not immediately confirm the numbers, and noted the cleanup completion date remains unknown. The pipeline was monitored remotely, but the company has said the spill wasn’t detected.
Crews have had to dig as deep as 50 feet to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of oil-tainted soil, Suess said. The company has now switched to special equipment that cooks hydrocarbons from crude-soaked soil in a process called thermal desorption before putting it back in place.
The Dec. 5 spill on the Belle Fourche pipeline also was discovered by a landowner. Crude oil migrated about almost 6 miles from the spill site along Ash Coulee Creek, and fouled an unknown amount of private and U.S. Forest Service land along the waterway. Seuss said it appears no oil got as far as the Little Missouri River, and no drinking water sources were threatened.
It’s not yet clear why monitoring equipment didn’t detect the leak, according to Wendy Owen, a spokeswoman for Casper, Wyoming-based True Cos., which operates the pipeline.
The Dakota Access pipeline builder, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, has said the project will be safe and that workers remotely monitoring the pipeline will be able to shut it down if a leak is detected.
Owen said didn’t know how long it would take to clean the Belle Fourche spill, given that wintry weather was slowing down the progress, or how much it would cost.
Patty Jensen is aware of the glacial pace of oil spill cleanups. For more than three years, it’s been part the couple’s life.
“They are there working away 24 hours a day, seven days a week — it’s pretty amazing,” she said. “The noise from the equipment used to bug us but we’ve grown used to it.”
Only the hardiest remain at Dakota protest camp
The remaining activists are grappling with plunging temperatures that make conditions more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici
A couple of the remaining activists that are left grappling with plunging temperatures that make conditions there more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici
A couple of the remaining activists, hold up signs as they grapple with plunging temperatures that make conditions more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici
Supplies left for the remaining activists who are grappling with plunging temperatures that make conditions more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici
Supplies are piled up for the remaining activists that are left grappling with plunging temperatures that make conditions there more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici
Remaining activists keep warm inside, at an emergency center, as they are grappling with plunging temperatures that make conditions more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici
A snowman stands as the remaining activists are grappling with plunging temperatures that make conditions more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici
Two weeks after a victory in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, most protesters have cleared out of the main protest camp in North Dakota – but about 1,000 are still there, and plan to remain through the winter.
These folks say they are dug in at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, despite the cold, for a few reasons. Most are Native Americans, and want to support the tribal sovereignty effort forcefully argued by the Standing Rock Sioux, whose land is adjacent to the pipeline being built.
Others say they worry that Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP.N), the company building the $3.8 billion project, will resume construction without people on the ground, even though the tribes and the company are currently locked in a court battle.
Future decisions on the 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline are likely to come through discussions with the incoming administration of Donald Trump, or in courtrooms.
“I’ve seen some of my friends leave but I will be here until the end and will stand up to Trump if he decides to approve the permit,” said Victor Herrald, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, who has been at the camp since August.
At one point the camp had about 10,000 people, including about 4,000 veterans who showed up in early December – just before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a key easement needed to allow the Dakota Access Pipeline to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River.
After the Corps decision, Standing Rock chairman Dave Archambault asked protesters to go home. The camp’s population now runs from 700 to 1,000, depending on the day, and many come from the nearby Standing Rock reservation where they live.
Those left say they are there to “show our strengths,” as Bucky Harjo, 63, of the Paiute tribe, from Reno, Nevada, put it, while the tribe deals with the legal battle.
Logistics are key for those still at the camp, located on federal land. Theron Begay, a Navajo journeyman who is a certified construction worker and heavy machine operator, has been put in charge of winterizing the camp. He is training volunteers to build structures that can withstand sub-zero temperatures and bitter winds, as well as compost toilets.
Some people at the camp have gotten pneumonia, and they and others went to an emergency shelter that was built three miles away to escape the cold.
Because the Oceti Sakowin camp is located on a flood plain, waste from the camp poses risks to the nearby Cannonball River. Tribal leaders have said the camp may need to move if it wants to remain active. Begay said the structures can be “disassembled like a puzzle in two hours” and re-established on drier ground.
North Dakota’s Governor Jack Dalrymple said in a Tuesday statement that he and Archambault recently met to discuss reducing tensions between the tribe and law enforcement. They are discussing reopening the nearby Backwater Bridge on state highway 1806, which has been blockaded since Oct. 27, when activists set vehicles on fire.
Harjo said he will leave “when I see the drill pad removed and DAPL out of here, and when they reopen 1806 and when we are free to go at our own will and not be targeted on the highway.”
Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, and a constant presence in the camp, said the protest is transitioning “to the next level of our campaign” to stop the pipeline.
Some still at the camp worry that if they leave, Energy Transfer Partners will restart construction. ETP asked a federal judge on Dec. 9 to overrule the government’s decision and grant the easement. The judge declined that request; the parties are due back in court in February. The Army Corps is considering alternatives, which could take months.
Trump, who owned ETP stock through at least mid-2016, according to financial disclosure forms, could order the Army Corps to grant the permit. His choice for U.S. Energy Secretary, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, is on ETP’s board. Standing Rock Sioux representatives met with members of Trump’s transition team this week to urge the incoming president to deny the easement.
Protesters who remain at the camp are still receiving donations of money and supplies from people across the United States. On a recent visit to the camp’s emergency shelter it was filled with boxes delivered via Amazon.com.
Goldtooth said tribal leaders are talking about an exit plan for the camp. “We will continue to provide infrastructure support to those who stay here,” he said. “We’ll make sure they’re safe and warm.”
Many believe that if there is a pipeline breach, it just gets cleaned up and life goes on. The truth is that it takes years to clean up and the land and the animals and the water are affected and we don’t know if it is ever completely cleaned up. The big oil and gas companies may not want to pollute the environment but they are not going to turn away from their huge profits to possibly save a piece of land.
Beginning on January 20th, the Federal government will have a conflict of interest between the native people and Trump’s owning a piece of the Energy Transfer Partners, the oil company installing the Dakota Pipeline. Those of us that care enough about America to love our environment and our beautiful land don’t care about profits. We the people care about keeping our land beautiful and pristine. That can’t be done if the land and the water is polluted and unsafe for people to use.
Some of the native people have gone home to their families and jobs. There are some 700-1000 protesters who plan on staying throughout the winter. I think that we need to continue our prayers and continue to send donations as we have been doing since the beginning. I also think that letters of encouragement from us, the adults, or from our kids would be a wonderful way to let the native people know that we are with them and that they are not forgotten in their long dark winter.
Power to the People
Clean water and pristine land for the people
Namaste
Barbara
idealisticrebel 