Pipeline dumps 12,000 barrels of oil on small town

This backyard was flooded with oil from the spill.

The 2,300-population town of Mayflower, Ark., between Conway and Little Rock, is at the center of an Exxon Mobil oil spill that has flooded the area with 12,000 barrels of oil and caused 22 homes to be evacuated after a pipeline ruptured Friday. The 848-mile pipeline is used to transport Canadian crude oil from Patoka, Ill., to Nederland, Tex., reports the Log Cabin Democrat of Conway.

Mayflower resident Joe Bradley, who was ordered to evacuate, told CBS News and The Associated Press, "We could see oil running down the road like a river." Bradley said he was "unaware of the pipeline and only lives four to five homes down from the rupture. He said he is fearful of the effects on his 8-year-old daughter."

County Judge Allen Dodson said "oil that made it to the street went into storm drains that eventually lead to a cove connected to nearby Lake Conway, known as a fishing lake stocked with bass, catfish, bream and crappie," Voice of America reports. "Local responders quickly built dikes of dirt and rock to block culverts along that path that stopped crude from fouling the lake. We were just in the nick of time." Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said Sunday that "crews had yet to excavate the area around the pipeline breach, a needed step before the company can estimate how long repairs will take and when the line might restart." (Read more)