Air,soil,weels near Montana oil spill to be tested
Indoor air, cropland soils and residential wells downstream of a Yellowstone River oil spill will be tested for contamination after residents raised concerns about hazards from the tens of thousands of gallons of crude that poured into the watercourse, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.
EPA and local officials said they do not expect to find significant health dangers but were acting as a precaution. Some residents in oil-stained areas have complained of nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath that have lingered for days.
An estimated 1,000 barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons, have fouled areas along the scenic Yellowstone since Friday after a 12-inch pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil Corp. broke near the south-central Montana town of Laurel.
George Nilson, 69, of Billings, said the fumes from oil that washed into his neighbor’s property have been overwhelming.
“I’ve been in it for five days now, and the only way I can breathe is to have all the windows open,” he said.
Contractors for the EPA and Exxon Mobil were to collect air samples beginning Thursday or Friday, and the results would take about a week, said EPA on-scene coordinator Steve Merritt. Twelve homes would be tested initially, with possibly more to follow.
Crude oil contains dangerous chemicals including benzene and hydrogen sulfide. But officials said much of those substances would have evaporated quickly after the initial spill, meaning the long-term health risk is low.
“The air is not inundated with these potentially harmful chemicals,” said Yellowstone County Health Officer John Felton. “We can smell things that are no longer creating the same level of hazard.”
Soil from agricultural areas and water from hundreds or residential wells also will be tested in coming days, Merritt said. Exxon Mobil’s contractors will collect duplicate samples so their results can be verified by government scientists, he said.
Amid those efforts to gauge the oil’s health and environmental effects, Gov. Brian Schweitzer said state officials were leaving a command post set up to coordinate spill response because Exxon Mobil has blocked public access to the site.
Schweitzer told The Associated Press that state employees legally cannot be involved in a group that does not make itself transparent to the public under Montana law.
Exxon Mobil security workers have closely guarded access to the command post on the second floor of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Billings, where the EPA and other federal agencies also are stationed. Attempts by The Associated Press to talk to government officials there have been denied.
“The state will no longer have a presence at the Crowne Plaza because Exxon Mobil tells us they can’t respect the open government laws we have in Montana,” Schweitzer said. “I can’t allow state employees to be in meetings at the Crowne Plaza talking about this cleanup without having it open.”
An alternate, state-run oil spill office opened Thursday at the Department of Transportation offices in Billings. Schweitzer said the move will improve the flow of public information and not impede the state’s ability to respond to the spill.
Authorities in Yellowstone County said Thursday they would ease travel restrictions along a road near the spill site after residents and some members of the media complained about a lack of access.
Those restrictions at times have been enforced by private security contractors working for Exxon Mobil, who turned away reporters or blocked them from areas where cleanup work was going on.
“We have been frustrated since the spill took place because we’ve burned up time waiting for Exxon officials or other authorities to respond to our request for information and access,” said Steve Prosinski, editor of the Billings Gazette. “We realize cleanup is their primary focus but they have a responsibility through us to communicate how the cleanup is going.”
Yellowstone County Sheriff John Linder said his deputies were working in conjunction with the company but had not ceded any authority to it. Linder said the restrictions were meant to protect public safety.
“They’re not calling the shots down there as far as access,” Linder said of Exxon Mobil. “They’ll let us know when there is a safe time or not a safe time. We’re working together, is what we’re doing. If it’s a safety issue, we will address it. If it’s not, we will work with them to make sure everybody has access.”
Exxon Mobil spokesman Alan Jeffers said the company was trying to be transparent and has worked over the week to improve media access to cleanup areas.
The cause of the July 1 pipeline rupture beneath the riverbed remains under investigation, but the prevailing theory among officials and the company is that the raging Yellowstone eroded the river bottom and exposed the line to damaging rocks or debris.
The pipeline was temporarily shut down in May after Laurel officials raised concerns that it could be at risk as the Yellowstone started to rise. The company restarted the line after a day, following a review of its safety record.
The company said June 1 – one month before the spill – that the line was buried under “at least 12 feet of cover,” according to documents from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which oversees pipelines.
But Jeffers said Thursday that the 12-foot figure referred to the pipeline’s depth on shore, and the company provided transportation officials with a survey that showed a 5- to 8-foot depth beneath the riverbed.
Federal regulators have ordered Exxon Mobil to make safety improvements before re-starting the 20-year-old pipeline, including re-burying the line as much as 25 to 30 feet deep to protect against external damage and assess risk where it crosses a waterway. The company intends to comply, Jeffers said.
There is still no definitive word on how far downriver the spill could spread.
There have been confirmed reports of oil as far as 80 miles downstream, although most appears to be concentrated in the first 20 miles.
An estimated 350 federal and Exxon Mobil contractors were cleaning contaminated areas of riverbank by Thursday, said Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. President Gary Pruessing.
“It’s not soiled everywhere but there are pockets of it,” Pruessing said. “It’s going to take a while as we try to get our hands around where the contamination is and then clean it up.”
