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Monday, October 14, 2013

Oil company waits 11 days to tell the public about big oil spill in North Dakota

More than 20,000 barrels of crude oil spilled from a pipeline in North Dakota, and farmer Steven Jensen discovered it on Sept. 29 while harvesting wheat; the public wasn't informed for 11 days. Oil was gushing from the pipeline "like a faucet, four to six inches spewing out," Jensen told Todd Melby and Selam Gebrekidan, reporting for Reuters. The North Dakota Health Department was informed that day.

"State officials said they believed the spill to be much smaller than it actually was and said that was one of the reasons no public announcement was made for 11 days," Aljazeera America reports.

Kris Roberts, an environmental geologist with the department, told Aljazeera that although companies have to notify the state of spills, the state isn't required to release that information to the public. Alaska, Oklahoma and Texas, also major oil-producing states, also do not require government to publicly report spills. Oil and gas are regulated only by states, except for interstate pipelines, federal land and offshore wells.

"It shows an attitude of our current state government and what they think of the public," Don Morrison, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, told Aljazeera. "It's definitely worrisome. There is a pattern of current state government not to involve the public."

Tesoro, the company that owns the pipeline, told Aljazeera that repairing the damage will cost around $4 million and take anywhere from several months to several years. Before this happened, concerns were already multiplying about the safety of the U.S. pipeline network, Melby and Gebrekidan report.

The oil hasn't affected any water sources, Eric Haugstad, director of contingency planning and response for Tesoro, told Amy Dalrymple, reporting for Forum Communications. "Though authorities said no water sources were contaminated, no wildlife was hurt, and no one was injured, local environmentalists remain skeptical," Aljazeera reports. "When seven acres of agricultural land is affected and they say there was no environmental impact, it defies common sense and logic," Morrison said.

Brian Kalk, chairman of the North Dakota Public Service Commission, told Aljazeera that while the commission usually receives word about even the smallest spills, it wasn't notified about this one until Thursday. "There is almost a million gallons of product on the ground and we need to find out what happened. I'm upset that we didn't find out until yesterday."

Cleanup crews continue to work 24 hours per day digging trenches and using "super sucker" vacuum trucks to clean up the damage, Haugstad told Dalrymple. "The pipeline was shut immediately, and the leak is now contained," Tesoro spokeswoman Tina Barbee told Melby and Gebrekidan.

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