DeSmog BlogOver 20,600 barrels of oil fracked from the Bakken Shale has spilled from aTesoro Logistics pipeline in Tioga, North Dakota in one of the biggest onshore oil spills in recent U.S. history.
Though the spill occurred on September 29, the U.S. National Response Center – tasked with responding to chemical and oil spills – did not make the report available until October 8 due to the ongoing government shutdown.
“The center generally makes such reports available on its website within 24 hours of their filing, but services were interrupted last week because of the U.S. government shutdown,” explained Reuters.
The “Incident Summaries” portion of the National Response Center’s website is currently down, and the homepage notes, “Due to [the] government shutdown, some services may not be available.”
At more than 20,600 barrels – equivalent to 865,200 gallons – the spill was bigger than the April 2013 ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline spill, which spewed 5,000-7,000 barrels of tar sands into a residential neighborhood in Mayflower, Arkansas.
So far, only 1,285 barrels have been cleaned, and the oil is spread out over a 7.3 acre land mass.
Kris Roberts, environmental geologist for the North Dakota Department of Health Division of Water Quality told the Williston Herald, “the leak was caused by a hole that deteriorated in the side of the pipe.”
“No water, surface water or ground water was impacted,” he said. “They installed monitoring wells to ensure there is no impact now or that there is going to be one.”
Roberts also told the Herald he was impressed with Tesoro’s handling of the cleanup.
“They’ve responded aggressively and quickly,” Roberts commented, also noting that the cleanup will cost upward of $4 million. “Sometimes we’ve had to ask companies to do what they did right off the mark. They’re going at this aggressively and they know they have a problem and they know what they need to do about it.”
Tesoro Logistics Chairman and CEO Greg Goff also weighed in on the spill.
“Protection and care of the environment are fundamental to our core values, and we deeply regret any impact to the landowner,” said Goff in a press release. “We will continue to work tirelessly to fully remediate the release area.”
Pipeline to Albany Refinery, Barging on the Hudson
Tesoro’s six-inch pipeline was carrying oil obtained via the controversialhydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) process to the Stampede, ND rail facility. From Stampede, Canadian Pacific’s freight trains take the oil piped from Tesoro’s pipeline and ship it to an Albany, NY holding facility by Global Partners located along the Hudson River.
Albany, NY Global Partners Facility; Image Credit: Google Maps
“Over five years, the equivalent of roughly 91 million barrels of oil will be transported via CP’s rail network from a loading facility in Stampede, N.D., to a Global terminal in Albany,” explained a September story appearing in the Financial Post.
Albany’s holding facility received its first Canadian Pacific shipment from the Bakken Shale in December 2011, according to Bloomberg, with 1.4 million barrels of storage capacity. The facility receives 149,000-157,000 barrels of Bakken crude per day from Canadian Pacific.
Once shipped to Global’s Albany holding facility, much of the oil is barged to market on tankers along the Hudson from the Port of Albany.
“As much as a quarter of the shale oil being produced in North Dakota could soon be headed by rail to the Port of Albany,” explained an April 2012 article appearing in the Albany Times-Union. “The crude oil…will be loaded onto barges to be shipped down the Hudson River to refineries along the East Coast.”
North Dakota Petroleum Council Responds
North Dakota Petroleum Council’s response to the largest fracked oil spill in U.S. history and one of the biggest onshore spills in U.S. history? Ho-hum.
“You know, this is an industrial business and sometimes things happen and the companies are certainly responsible to take care of these things when they happen,” Petroleum Council President Ron Ness told KQCD.
John Berger, Manager of Tesoro’s Mandan, ND, refinery, sits on the Petroleum Council’s Board of Directors.
DeSmogBlog will post continuing updates on the spill: stay tuned.
Photo Credit: U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Wikimedia Commons
This is just another coverup. I heard that this oil leak was caused by a 1/4 inch hole that rusted through – how long does it take to have 865,200 gallons or 20,600 barrels of oil to leak through a 1/4 inch hole. This is just more of those dirty, sneaky, incompetant ones that are blaming every one but themselves and they are using this BS govt. shut down as a excuse…………I guess that these oil pipe lines are really not as safe and trouble free as they originally said that they are and I think most of us already knew that they are not as trouble free as they always like to say things are……P.S. I asume that this is the same oil leak that was from Bismark ND. Yes by that article it does say that all that oil came frome a 1/4 inch hole – that is a lot of oil to come out of a 1/4 inch hole I would think. I see that Sunfire posted the article that I was reffering to just above this article.
something is fishy here regarding the spill
When I operated in the Williston Oil Basin during the 1980’s I owned two one thousand barrel tanks and only a 1/4 inch hole…….doesn’t seem that could spill this much oil………this much is equal to 20 and 1/2 tank fulls of the 1000 barrel tanks I had for storage…….
generally pipe line companies fly, via helicopter or small fixed wing planes, their lines very often……….this spill doesn’t add up!!!its pretty big……..
“’You know, this is an industrial business and sometimes things happen and the companies are certainly responsible to take care of these things when they happen,’ Petroleum Council President Ron Ness told KQCD.”
Yeah, right. Versus this from Reuters, by Todd Melby and Selam Gebrekidan:
“Farmer Steven Jensen discovered the leak on Sept. 29 while harvesting wheat on his 1,800-acre farm, about nine miles northeast of Tioga, North Dakota.
“Oil was gushing from the pipeline ‘like a faucet, 4 to 6 inches spewing out,’ said Jensen, who added that nearby wheat plants were ruined.”
So this means the pipeline company failed to install pressure-monitoring devices, or the devices failed, or the company failed to monitor them. F, as in fail, is not responsible behavior by the San Antonio company, Tesoro Logistics.
Exactly what I was thinking Enbe. Where was their pressure monitoring devises, and isn`t there a signal or a alert to notify the inspectors etc. when a failure is about to happen. Kind of makes me wonder where the other leaks are and how big they are – if there is one then you know that there are more.
Holy crap! This is the first I’ve heard of this.