Montana Spill: More Oil in the Water

Yet another oil spill has taken place in Montana on Friday July 1st. Exxon's 12-inch pipeline sprang a leak after rupturing about 150 miles downstream from Yellowstone National Park. Many local residents began having breathing problems, dizziness,, shortness of breath and fainting and many ultimately sought medical attention due to the toxic fumes from the leak that spilled 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the river.

The contamination to the coastline extended approximately 25 miles downstream affecting dozens of land owners and washing a lot of oil up into low-lying areas.Trace amounts of the oil has also been swept down stream hundreds of mile, reaching the Missouri River and further.

Using oil-absorbent material to capture as much of the oil as possible, some 350 people worked along the Yellowstone in an effort to clean up what they could. The local ranching and farming along the Yellowstone were immediately affected by the spill. The high water from the already full river had washed oil across much of the farmland of many locals. Local farmer Cathy Williams stated "It was the night the river peaked, so the river water was flooded all over the place, and that brought oil all over both ranches. All of our grasslands ... have just thick, black crude stuck to all the grass, trees, low lands." Fear of drinking water contamination is also high, and Williams said, "We get all our drinking water from our wells and for our animals. All the groundwater, I assume, is probably contaminated. We just don't know."

Exxon is forced to cut back operations at their Billings refinery since this is the pipe that carried 40,000 barrels of crude per day to that plant.

While this spill is far smaller than last year's BP spill of 168 million gallons into the Gulf, or the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill of 11 million gallons, it is still substantial enough to have a long term impact on the local farmer and wildlife along the river, the long term affects are as of yet still unknown.

Jeff McCormack resides in Virginia Beach, VA. where he works as a web designer by day. In his off time he is a husband, father, mail order book store manager, and musician. Aside from being a freelance writer for this Utilities Jobsite blog, he also seeks to assist in career choices and information by contributing to other Nexxt blog sites.