Great, just damn great.
Spill happened almost two weeks ago, at that, but they didn't tell anybody!
Nearly 3 million gallons of saltwater generated by oil drilling have leaked from a North Dakota pipeline, an official said Wednesday, the largest such spill since the state's current oil boom began and nearly three times worse than any previous spill. Two creeks have been affected, but the full environmental effect might not be clear for months.
Operator Summit Midstream Partners LLC detected the pipeline spill on Jan. 6, about 15 miles north of Williston and told health officials then. Officials say they weren't given a full account of the size until Tuesday.
See story
here.
Updates Jan. 22:
The spill came from a pipeline operated by Summit Midstream subsidiary Meadowlark Midstream.
The highest chloride concentration the health department has found was nearly 92,000 milligrams per liter, in Blacktail Creek close to the pipeline break. Background levels of chloride are between 10 and 20 milligrams per liter, (said Dave Glatt, the North Dakota Department of Health’s environmental health section chief.)
The concentrations decrease further downstream Blacktail and the Little Muddy River.
Chloride, ammonia and other contaminants in brine threaten life underwater.
“That has the ability to kill aquatic life and so we’ll want to see if the aquatic life was able to get out of the way, and if they weren't, how badly they were impacted,” Glatt said.
For more details, and a video see this story from
The Dickinson Press.