865,200 Gallons of Fracked Oil Spilled onto North Dakota Farm in Pipeline Leak

The latest environmental disaster in the United States has taken place in North Dakota.  On September 29, a wheat farmer near Tioga discovered the spill while harvesting his crops.  The spill was traced to a nearby pipeline owned and operated by Tesoro Corp., an oil company based out of San Antonio, TX.  The 20-year old pipeline had a quarter-inch size hole in it.  It has been reported that over 20,600 barrels – or 865,200 gallons – of oil were spilled.  The spill is spread across 7.3 acres, nearly seven football fields. 

State environmental geologist Kris Roberts claims that the spill is fully contained and that none of the spilt oil has contaminated any underground or surface water.  Of the more than 20,000 barrels, only 1,285 have been recovered.  Roberts also noted that there is a 40-foot thick layer of natural clay underneath of the spill site that is prohibiting the oil from contaminating underground water. 

Tesoro has issued a statement for the spill and claim full responsibility.  They have estimated that the spill will cost them $4 million to clean up.  While they are investigating the cause of the hole in the pipeline, Tesoro claims, “There have been no injuries or known impacts to water, wildlife or the surrounding environment as a result of this incident.”  CEO Greg Goff stated, “Protection and care of the environment are fundamental to our core values, and we deeply regret any impact to the landowner…We will continue to work tirelessly to fully remediate the release area.” 

This spill is almost three or four times the size of the April 2013 Pegasus pipeline (owned by ExxonMobil) leak that spilled 5,000-7,000 barrels of tar sands oil into a residential Arkansas neighborhood. 

In July 2010, an Enbridge Energy pipeline ruptured in Michigan spilling anywhere from 877,000-1,000,000 gallons of diluted bitumen (tar sands oil) into the Talmadge Creek, eventually flowing into the Kalamazoo River.  The spill resulted in oil impacting over 25 miles of shoreline.  Unfortunately, thousands of gallons of oil sank in the water column and was not removed.  In March 2013, the EPA ordered Enbridge to return to the river to continue the clean-up process.  To date, it is the largest on-land oil spill in U.S. history. 
There has also been another disturbing development stemming from the state government.  State officials waited 11 days to inform the public of the spill, claiming that they originally thought the spill was smaller than it actually was.  That could certainly be a justifiable delay by the state, however many argue the state not informing the public has become business as usual for many issues.  Don Morrison, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, believes that "There is a pattern in the current state government to not involve the public."  Kris Roberts stated that the state is not required to inform the public of any oil spills, a trait all too common in the nation's oil producing states.  North Dakota is the number two oil produce behind Texas.
The public were not the only ones left in the dark.  Brian Kalk, chairman of the North Dakota Public Services Commission - a state organization that has been regularly updated on a spill of any size, claims that the commission found out about the spill when the public did--11 days after.  Kalk says, "I'm upset that we didn't find out until yesterday." 

These spills have become a common occurrence.  These are only three of a number of oil spills that have occurred within the last few years.  It must be noted that Tesoro’s statement that there has been “no known impacts to…the surrounding environment” is simply not true.  There is still over 860,000 gallons of oil in a farmer’s wheat field, and although the state claims that everything is contained, there is reason to believe that this oil is beginning to seep into the soil.  The owner of the wheat field says that his crop had "disintegrated, you wouldn't have known it was wheat," and went on to say that he would not be able to plant crops on the land for the next few years.  In addition, in the early stages of the clean-up process, workers were the burning crude oil on the surface releasing high-amounts of toxic pollutants into the local air and atmosphere. This alone discredits Tesoro's deluded statement. 

North Dakota has been a vocal supporter of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline.  State and federal senators and congressional representatives have vigorously lobbied the Obama administration to approve the pipeline.  If anything, the increasing incidences of pipeline oil spills should make everyone even more skeptical of the Keystone XL pipeline.  This spill certainly does not help the pipeline proponents' case that KXL would be safe and good for this country.  There is simply no way to ensure a pipeline’s safety.  The ecological impacts are already being noticed, but the long-term effects of the North Dakota spill have yet to be seen.  However, I presume that they may unfortunately resemble those of the Gulf Coast, Kalamazoo and Arkansas.