A Full Year After 20,000 Barrel ND Oil Spill, Cleanup Goes On - $20 Million, Another Year To Go

[hatrack]

BISMARCK, N.D. -- One year after a pipeline rupture flooded a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota with more than 20,000 barrels of crude, Tesoro Corp. is still working around the clock cleaning up the oil spill -- one of the largest to happen onshore in U.S. history.

Cleanup costs have soared from the company's original estimate of $4 million to a forecast of more than $20 million, and it may be at least another year before the work is completed, the company and state officials said. The oil-sopped parcel of land, about the size of seven football fields, is not usable for planting now.

"It's a big cleanup and it's become part of our life," farmer Steve Jensen said Monday. "The ground is still saturated with oil. And they're out there seven days a week, 24 hours a day." Jensen discovered the spill while harvesting wheat on Sept. 29, 2013, on his farm near Tioga. It was almost two weeks after Jensen reported the spill that state officials told the public what had happened, and only after the Associated Press asked about it. Tesoro blames a lightning strike for causing the rupture.

"We are committed to making this situation right," said Tina Barbee, a spokeswomen at the company's headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. The 35-mile-long pipeline was restarted in November. The pipeline now has leak-detection equipment installed, and frequent aerial and ground inspections are being done.

EDIT

http://www.twincities.com/nation/ci_26765781/year-after-n-d-oil-spill-cleanup-goes

[Frustratedlady]

1. Why would they have leak detection devices installed, as well as air patrol?

We've all been told how safe these pipelines are. If they are so safe, then...

Well, at least it is providing jobs.