Photo of the Exxon Oil Spill on the Yellowstone River. Photo by Alexis Bonogofsky

A facebook page dedicated to asking Exxon to pay its fine was started gathering over 340 likes in just a few days of existence. “Exxon, Pay Your Yellowstone Oil Spill Fine” can be found at www.facebook.com/PayYourFineExxon.

Screenshot of the Exxon, Pay Your Fine Facebook Page.

“I believe that PHMSA’s proposed fine in the case of the Yellowstone River spill is fair,” said Eileen Morris of Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council.  ”Exxon should be held accountable and fulfill their obligations.”

In a letter sent today, citizens are asking Senators Baucus, Tester and Representative Daines to support PHMSA’s fine against Exxon Mobil Corporation. PHMSA found that Exxon failed to address known seasonal flooding risks to the safety of its pipeline system, including excessive river scour and erosion, and to implement measures that would have mitigated the spill into the Yellowstone River putting thousands of people in danger and damaging the ecosystem. In addition, Exxon failed to establish written procedures for its staff to take prompt and effective action to protect the Silvertip pipeline from floods and other natural disasters, and to minimize the volume of oil released from any section along the pipeline’s system.

“Exxon failed to address known safety problems with the Silvertip Pipeline putting thousands of people at risk, damaging private property and killing fish and wildlife in the Yellowstone. PHMSA’s investigation into these issues was thorough and comprehensive. Exxon needs to take responsibility and pay their fine,” said Debra Bonogofsky, local landowner impacted by the spill.

“It is in the best interest of all Montanans and the American public to ensure that our pipeline systems are as safe as possible. Operators, in this case Exxon, must be held accountable if they do not adhere to federal safety standards. We believe that PHMSA’s proposed fine in the case of the Yellowstone River spill is appropriate, defensible and necessary,” said Alexis Bonogofsky of the National Wildlife Federation.

The Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011, signed into law last year by President Obama, doubled the maximum civil penalty amount PHMSA can issue to pipeline operators for violating pipeline safety regulations from $100,000 to $200,000 for each violation, and from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 for a related series of violations.  The fine imposed by PHMSA easily falls within these regulations and justifications for the fines are comprehensive.

On July 17, a hearing will be held in Washington D.C. with PHMSA to address Exxon’s protests of the fine.

840,000 of tar sands crude spilled into Michigan's Kalamazoo River last year

While the Yellowstone River is still being cleaned after a 42,000 gallon ExxonMobil pipeline spill earlier this month and on the year anniversary of a 840,000 gallon Enbridge pipeline spill into the Kalamazoo River, which is still closed due to the contamination, the House of Representatives will vote to expedite the next oil disaster.

Introduced by Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE), H.R. 1938 directs the President to expedite the permitting and make a final decision by this November on TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. This pipeline is a bad bet for America for a lot of reasons, including the fact that TransCanada actually told the Canadian government it would increase our nation’s fuel bill by $4 billion per year. But we need look no further than the clockwork contamination of America’s lands and waters by tar sands pipelines to see that rushing this pipeline is irresponsible.

Here are 10 reasons why – based on safety – Congress should not rush Keystone XL:

1. TransCanada’s brand new Keystone tar sands pipeline has spilled 12 times in 12 months.
2. The toxic chemicals that will flow through Keystone XL haven’t been disclosed to emergency first responders.
3. Keystone XL’s spill frequency and worst-case scenario spill have been seriously underestimated.
4. TransCanada is strong-arming American farmers opposed to Keystone XL’s route through the Ogallala Aquifer.
5. Existing pipeline safety standards are failing to protect public health and the environment.
6. Regulators have said that tar sands may cause more “wear and tear” on pipelines.
7. Tar sands were implicated in all the worst pipeline spills in the U.S. and Canada over the last year.
8. Pending legislation in the House and Senate acknowledge that tar sands pipelines may be risky.
9. Michigan’s Kalamazoo River is still contaminated from a tar sands pipeline spill a year ago.
10. Keystone XL’s environmental review has taken so long because it’s been flawed by bias.

Congressional testimony of Randy Thompson, Nebraskan farmer and rancher:

“TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline, which crosses the eastern part of our state, has been in operation for less than a year and has already had twelve confirmed leaks. The latest of which spewed a geyser of chemical laden tar sands sixty feet into the air. In only a few minutes, it discharged nearly twenty thousand gallons into the surrounding area. How can we have confidence that this won’t happen on our property?”

1. TransCanada’s brand new Keystone tar sands pipeline has spilled 12 times in 12 months.

Keystone is the newest pipeline on record to have been deemed a threat to life, property and the environment by regulators. After a 16,800 gallon spill on May 7 in North Dakota followed by another spill on May 29 in Kansas, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued TransCanada a corrective action order, temporarily shutting down the pipeline. This order is still in effect and TransCanada is still complying with its requirements.

2. The toxic chemicals that will flow through Keystone XL haven’t been disclosed to emergency first responders.

Tar sands crude is thicker, more corrosive, and more abrasive than conventional crude, so it has to be mixed with chemical diluents, then pumped at high pressures and temperatures to make it flow through a pipeline. The State Department’s environmental review of Keystone XL hasn’t analyzed what’s in these mixtures, claiming it’s “proprietary information.” The Environmental Protection Agency critiqued this, saying that such analysis is “important to establish the potential health and environmental impacts of any spilled oil, and responder/worker safety, and to develop response strategies.” The Yellowstone and Kalamazoo River spills demonstrate why this is important. In both cases, confusion ensued about how to respond because no one knew what chemicals were spilled.

3. Keystone XL spill frequency and worst-case scenario spill have been seriously underestimated.

This is according to an independent analysis by Dr. John Stansbury, a professor of water resources engineering at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He estimated that Keystone XL would have 91 spills of more than 50 barrels over 50 years. TransCanada estimated it would have 11. Stansbury also estimated that the worst-case spill into the Missouri, Yellowstone and Platte Rivers would be 122,867 , 165,416 , and 140,950 barrels, respectively, resulting in oil plumes extending for hundreds of miles. The worst-case spill for a subsurface release to groundwater in the Sandhills region of Nebraska would be 189,000 barrels.

4. TransCanada is strong-arming American farmers opposed to Keystone XL’s route through the Ogallala Aquifer.

TransCanada is threatening American farmers with eminent domain even after Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) asked them not to. Farmers are concerned about the proposed route for Keystone XL, which passes right through the Nebraska Sandhills where the sandy soils are saturated by the Ogallala Aquifer at or near the surface level. So the pipeline would have to be laid directly into the aquifer, which provides irrigation water for much of America’s breadbasket and drinking water for millions of people. Two hydrologists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have made the case that their state’s fragile Sandhills is particularly vulnerable to a pipeline spill.

5. Existing pipeline safety standards are failing to protect public health and the environment.

National Wildlife Federation’s 2010 report, “Assault on America: A Decade of Petroleum Company Disaster, Pollution, and Profit,” documents that oil disasters are tragically all too common. From 2000 to 2009, pipeline accidents accounted for 161 fatalities and 576 injuries in the United States. Since 2009, pipeline accidents haven’t fared better. According to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, since January 2010, pipelines have spilled more than 2.3 million gallons of oil and caused $46 million dollars in damage to private property and the environment. The ExxonMobil pipeline spill into the Yellowstone River exemplifies this. Although a recent inspection by regulators revealed anomolies in the pipeline, it was allowed to continue operation, leading to the spill.

Senator Max Baucus of Montana addressed Ms. Cynthia Quarterman, Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, during a hearing on the Yellowstone River spill: “To be honest, ma’am, it sounds like you’re not really on top of this.”

6. Regulators have said that tar sands may cause more “wear and tear” on pipelines.

About two weeks after the Yellowstone River spill, it came to light that ExxonMobil’s pipeline routinely carried tar sands crude. This surprised Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer and Montana Department of Environmental Quality officials. In response to this development, a representative of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said, “Tar sands crude may also cause more wear and tear on pipes because of its chemical makeup, including corrosive and abrasive agents…Federal inspectors were trying to determine if transport of tar sands crude could have triggered internal corrosion that may have played a role in the rupture.”

7. Tar sands were implicated in all the worst pipeline spills in the U.S. and Canada over the last year.

Last year, an Enbridge pipeline spilled 840,000 gallons of tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River. In April of this year, the Rainbow pipeline in Canada ruptured and spilled over a million gallons of crude – the largest spill in Canada in 36 years. The Rainbow pipeline carries tar sands crude. The ExxonMobil pipeline that spilled 42,000 gallons into the Yellowstone River carries tar sands crude. TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline that leaked 12 times in a year carries tar sands crude. Is this merely coincidence? Probably not. If tar sands crude causes more wear and tear on pipelines, more spills would be expected.

8. Pending legislation in the House and Senate acknowledge that tar sands pipelines may be risky.

In May, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee passed the Pipeline Transportation Safety Improvement Act of 2011 (S. 275) that, among other things, calls on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to conduct a tar sands pipeline safety study. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is now considering draft pipeline safety legislation that also calls for a tar sands pipeline safety study. While this is a step in the right direction, the study should be done before any more tar sands pipelines are built.

9. Michigan’s Kalamazoo River is still contaminated from a tar sands pipeline spill a year ago.

Not only does tar sands crude cause more wear and tear on pipelines than conventional oil, it’s also much harder to clean up when it spills. Unlike conventional crude oil, which floats on water and can be skimmed off when it spills, tar sands crude sinks. The Environmental Protection Agency recently reported the results from its assessment of the river a year after the spill. The river is in a much worse condition than anyone expected due to the tar sands crude sinking to the bottom of the riverbed. The Agency identified over 200 acres of submerged crude that has spread, unseen, throughout 40 miles of waterway. The river will remain closed through the summer.

Toby Cull, who lives near the Kalamazoo River told the Detroit News: “That’s the biggest thing Enbridge can’t put a price on — what they’ve done to our daily lives.” Cull estimated that 17 of his neighbors moved due to the spill.

10. Keystone XL’s environmental review has taken so long because it’s been flawed by bias.

As uncovered by the LA Times, TransCanada is one of the biggest clients of Entrix, the consultant that the State Department hired to do the environmental review for Keystone XL. This raises serious questions about conflict of interest, especially considering that, as the New York Times points out, the State Department has now come out with two flawed environmental impact statements for the pipeline. Had the State Department focused on evaluating the project on its merits, the environmental review would be done by now. The State Department still has a chance to get it right, but not if rushed by Congress.

For these 10 reasons, the House of Representatives should abandon consideration of H.R. 1938 to rush the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and focus on strengthening or nation’s pipeline safety standards to protect public health and the environment.

Help Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

Help stop the Keystone XL pipeline from threatening sandhill cranes and other wildlife! Urge President Obama and the U.S. State Department to keep dangerous tar sands oil pipelines out of America’s Heartland.

Bald Eagle (NWF File Photo/John C Moerk)

As the Yellowstone River oil spill cleanup continues in Montana, we’re learning more about its impacts on wildlife. An estimated 42,000 gallons of  crude oil spilled from an Exxon Mobil pipeline under the river on July 1.

Now the Environmental Protection Agency is reporting one of the latest victims is a bald eagle:

Cleanup crews over the weekend found an oiled bald eagle and pockets of black crude trapped by debris piles along the Yellowstone River.

Biologists believe the bald eagle won’t survive the winter unless it’s cleaned, said Karen Nelson with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Crews are working now to trap the bird so it can be treated.

Workers also have found four geese and a cooper’s hawk covered in oil. They’ve trapped one goose and are working to capture the others, Nelson said.

The number of dead wildlife also increased over the weekend. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported finding dead two great horned owls, a wood duck, two ducklings, two fish, a fox, a beaver and a bunting.

Of those animals, one of the owls, the wood duck, the ducklings and the fish were covered in oil. All the animals will be tested to discover the cause of death.

Meanwhile, the Billings Gazette reports fish downstream from the spill are showing signs of stress and even illness:

Flesh samples from the fish will be tested in state labs. But visibly, gills on some of the captured fish aren’t the bright pink they’re supposed to be, and some of the fish have lesions.

Frazer said it’s common for river fish to show certain levels of stress throughout the year because of parasites and other conditions fish naturally carry.

However, in the samples that have been collected, the fish captured above the spill site show far fewer signs of stress than those below, leading Frazer to believe that the spill has had an effect.

Only 20 Critters Harmed in Oil Spill? Misleading, Says NWF Scientist

And as National Wildlife Federation Senior Scientist Dr. Doug Inkley tells Public News Service, the impacts we see may only be the tip of the iceberg:

“We need to observe not only the fish, but the entire food chain. The fish depend on all these little invertebrates – little mayflies, nymphs and things of this type – and those are very susceptible.”

A U.S. Senate subcommittee held a hearing on the Yellowstone spill on Wednesday. Inkley testified earlier before a similar subcommittee hearing in the House, calling for stronger federal safety regulations. He says that’s critically important as the Keystone XL pipeline is considered, which would also cross the Yellowstone, as well as the Missouri River and hundreds of other waterways.

Oil Spills: Tragically Common

While the oil and gas industry likes to paint spills like this as an aberration, the National Wildlife Federation has documented that oil and gas disasters are tragically common. Now the oil industry wants to build a new pipeline cutting right through America’s heartland. The Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t carry just any oil – it would carry tar sands, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet.

But we still have a chance to protect the people and wildlife along the proposed pipeline route. Please take a moment right now to ask President Obama to say no to tar sands.

Legislating in the Dark: Latest House Vote Attacks Water, Clean Energy and Light Bulbs

July 15 – The House of Representatives voted to further dismantle America’s clean water and clean energy future by passing H.R. 2354, the Energy & Water Development Appropriations Act of 2012. The bill blocks the Army Corps of Engineers from updating Clean Water Act guidance that would bring greater clarity to the law and better protect our rivers, lakes and streams. H.R. 2354 also stalls restoration of the Everglades and other Great Waters, which offer huge water quality, habitat and economic benefits to the nation.

Bipartisan ‘No Child Left Inside’ Act Will Foster Innovation

July 14 – The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed in 1965, authorizing state-managed, federally funded education programs as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s suite of poverty-reduction policies. Thirty-seven years later it was reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind Act under President George W. Bush, who sought to define core common educational standards for the purposes of national assessment.

Now, under the leadership of Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), Congressman John Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and others, a bipartisan movement is underway to amend that far-reaching act because it still doesn’t touch one of the most crucial areas of all—the outdoors.

Oil Pipelines Unsafe, Congress Must Improve Safety Shortcoming NWF Tells House Panel

July 14 – In the wake of yet another tragic oil spill, NWF Senior Scientist Doug Inkley did his best to impress upon a House pipelines subcommittee that spills are far too frequent and better pipeline safety legislation is urgently needed.

“Montana’s people, fish, and wildlife didn’t deserve this oil spill in the Yellowstone River, but they do deserve a better response from ExxonMobil and the federal government,” Dr. Inkley testified in a hearing that included testimony from Exxon and the government’s chief pipeline safety official.

Dirty Politics, Dirty Water: House Trashes Clean Water Act to Help Pad Polluter Profits

July 13 – The Clean Water Act is under unprecedented assault during this Congress, and today the House of Representatives launched the biggest and most outrageous attack yet. Lawmakers passed H.R. 2018, the “Dirty Water Act,” which undermines Clean Water Act safeguards and the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to do its job and keep our waters clean and healthy.

New Report: States’ Actions on the Great Lakes Compact Are Good, Bad and Ugly

July 12 – Halfway through efforts to implement the Great Lakes Compact, a new report by the National Wildlife Federation provides an honest critique of the states’ progress:  the good, the bad, and the ugly.

“This report is a wake-up call to the states to step it up,” said Marc Smith, senior policy manager for the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center. “The future of the Compact remains bright, but our Great Lakes need a renewed commitment by the states and the region to address the bad—and prevent the ugly.”

Congress Votes for Much-Needed Reforms to National Flood Insurance Program

July 12 – With hurricane season well underway and the remnants of severe floods still troubling many river communities in the country’s midsection, it is difficult to ignore the risks out-of-control waters pose to all Americans. Recently, the House of Representatives voted to reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), advancing measures that will better protect people, property and the environment. H.R. 1309, the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2011, removes incentives for risky developments in flood prone and environmentally sensitive areas, applies market-based rates to flood insurance to further mitigate risk and provides technical and financial assistance to help lessen damage and protect natural features.

House Spending Bill Halts Endangered Species Listing, Blocks Clean Water Protections, Guts Clean Air Act

July 14 – The House Appropriations Committee this week passed its fiscal year 2012 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill. According to NWF’s Adam Kolton, “the policy riders and extreme cuts in this proposal mark a radical departure from America’s longstanding national commitment to protecting the air we breathe and the water we drink. Our families will bear the costs, while polluters will reap the profits.”

The bill slashes investments for agencies charged with providing clean water, protecting public health, and safeguarding wildlife. This includes an 18% cut in investments for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a 7% cut in investments for the Department of Interior.

And here are highlights from NWF in the News:

• WBEZ Radio: Climate change hits mightiest of the Great Lakes
• Boston Globe: MD Congressman Re-introduces Enviro Ed Bill

For more, visit www.nwf.org/News

Absorbent pads placed on oil along Yellowstone River (NWF's David Ellenberger)

Oil spill cleanup efforts continue along the Yellowstone River in Montana. But will they be effective?

ExxonMobil, the company behind the spill, insists that it is pulling out all the stops to mop up the 42,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the river in early July. Company president Gary Pruessing said on Wednesday that ExxonMobil has applied over 70,000 feet of boom and 3,000 absorbent pads to the spill site to absorb the oil, and that this is all being coordinated by 350 emergency personnel down at the river. Boom blocks the oil from certain areas; absorbent pads soak it up. This is pretty standard; BP did the same thing after their disaster, with some additional steps like skimming – surrounding the oil with skimming vessels so pumps can pull it from the water – and burning, where surface oil is towed away from the main slick and set alight to burn it off.

But while an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico presents its own unique hurdles to cleanup efforts – it is the world’s ninth largest body of water, after all – the workers in Montana are dealing with something quite different. The Yellowstone waters are moving quickly: 5 to 7 mph, according to National Wildlife Federation senior scientist Doug Inkley. That has several effects. First, the rushing water is dispersing the oil far away from the spill site so that it is harder for the booms and pads to pick up. Second, steps like skimming and burning aren’t going to be effective because the wide dispersal of the oil means there aren’t any large quantities of crude on the water surface. And finally, the swollen, volatile waters from the flood make it difficult for boats to get out on the river to assess the condition, which hampers efficient cleanup.

“This is a time of peak water flow in the Yellowstone River because its water supply is water from snow runoff, which is occurring at maximum rates now given that it’s July,” Inkley explained. “And if there is any rough water whatsoever, [the booms and pads] are essentially ineffective. They’re not going to get that oil back.”

Oil near a tree felled by a beaver (NWF's David Ellenberger)

The National Wildlife Federation’s David Ellenberger toured an affected ranch along the Yellowstone River on Saturday. He found absorbent pads placed haphazardly in oiled areas – some oiled areas were covered with pads, others had none. In the shallow water left behind by the Yellowstone’s receding floodwaters, he saw hundreds of dead worms.

David also reported plenty of evidence that wildlife are still visiting oiled areas, like fresh deer tracks in the mud. Other areas with signs of wildlife activity, like this tree taken down by beavers, now smell strongly of petrochemicals.

Another rancher found several dead wildlife on his property, including a garter snake, a hawk, and a deer (you can see a not-so-pleasant picture of the remains here). While there were no visible signs of oil, International Bird Rescue personnel collected the remains to test them for any evidence of oil contamination.

The National Wildlife Federation will continue watching for wildlife impacts in the days and weeks ahead. And on Capitol Hill, we’ll be watching the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee’s hearing on pipeline safety coming up on Thursday.

Oiled pasture on the farm of NWF's Alexis Bonogofsky along Montana's Yellowstone River

We’re now learning oil from last week’s Exxon Mobil pipeline rupture under Montana’s Yellowstone River has traveled much further downstream than the oil giant originally estimated. Reports now say the oil has traveled at least 15 miles down the river. The Billings Gazette reports hundreds of workers are now involved in the cleanup effort:

Monday afternoon, much of the cleanup efforts were concentrated on the Thiel Road area east of Laurel, where gobs of black crude cover much of the riverbank, sticking to the tall grass and low-hanging tree limbs. Swirls of red-brown oil sit in pools of standing river water next to the road.

Dozens of white-clad cleanup crews were there, scooping up sticky oil-covered river debris and placing it in black trash bags. Booms and pads were sitting in the water catching oil as it floated in the current.

A small crew at Mystic Park was on hands and knees wiping oil from clumps of grass where the river had receded.

The sad reality is that much of the oil will be impossible to “clean.” As I learned when I visited Louisiana in April, a full year after the Gulf oil disaster began and despite the work of an army of BP contractors, it’s not hard to find oil still fouling coastal wetlands.

While Exxon Mobil has been eager to talk to the press, they’ve been less forthcoming with Montana residents. The National Wildlife Federation’s Alexis Bonogofsky lives on the Yellowstone River and her farm’s pasture, already flooded by high river water, is now coated in oil. Alexis says that while elected officials were allowed into a news conference on Sunday, she and her husband Mike were shut out. Yesterday, Mike returned to look for answers while Alexis was treated for oil exposure:

After the news conference, Pruessing was confronted by an angry goat farmer and environmental activist who said his wife had been sickened by oil fumes and had to be taken to the emergency room.

“I need to know what we’ve been exposed to. People are sick now,” said Mike Scott, who also works for the Sierra Club. Scott said his wife, Alexis Bonogofsky, was diagnosed Monday with acute hydrocarbon exposure after experiencing dizziness, nausea and trouble breathing.

Bonogofsky, who works for the National Wildlife Federation, had gone to the riverbank with her camera to photograph oil on their property south of Billings.

Alexis is home now, but it’s a reminder of how dangerous oil can be and the risks of approaching it without full protective gear. You can get more updates from Alexis by following @ABonogofsky on Twitter.

Including the Gulf oil disaster and Michigan’s Kalamazoo River oil spill, the Yellowstone River spill becomes America’s third major oil disaster in just the last 15 months. As the National Wildlife Federation has documented, oil and gas disasters are tragically common.

Now the oil industry wants to build a new pipeline crossing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The Keystone XL pipeline would carry tar sands, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet.

The Obama administration hasn’t yet given final approval to the pipeline, which means we still have a chance to protect our public water supplies, crop lands, wildlife habitats. Please take a moment right now to ask President Obama to say no to tar sands.

Buffalo calf along Yellowstone River, Sept. 2008 (Flickr's TomMayNC)

We’re just learning about an Exxon Mobil oil spill in Montana’s Yellowstone County. Officials are now scrambling to protect the communities and wildlife that depend on the Yellowstone River:

Hundreds of barrels of crude oil spilled into Montana’s Yellowstone River after an ExxonMobil pipeline beneath the riverbed ruptured, sending a plume 25 miles downstream and forcing temporary evacuations, officials said.

The break near Billings in south-central Montana fouled the riverbank and forced municipalities and irrigation districts Saturday to close intakes.

The river has no dams on its way to its confluence with the Missouri River just across the Montana border in North Dakota. It was unclear how far the plume might travel.

Exxon Mobil is currently estimating the gusher at about 42,000 gallons of oil (1,000 barrels). The oil is moving downstream at 5 to 7 miles an hour.

Oil in Montana's Yellowstone River (NWF's Alexis Bonogofsky)

UPDATE: NWF’s Alexis Bonogofsky lives on the Yellowstone River in Montana and passes along this account:

The pipe ruptured Thursday night at around 11:30. I woke up around 7:45 and went outside to do chores (let goats out to graze, feed and water chickens, let horses out etc.). I walked down to our bottom pasture because the River was supposed to flood and I wanted to see if it had come over its banks. Sure enough, there was about 2 feet of water in the pasture. I got this overwhelming smell of hydrocarbons (very distinct smell especially around here because there are 3 refineries). I checked our local paper and saw that a pipeline had ruptured. Even though this had been going on for over 7 hours, and we are right on the River, we received no call, no warning..nothing. I had to find out about it by seeing it in our pastures. Apparently they evacuated people further up stream that were closer to the pipeline.

I spent all day yesterday calling our Montana Department of Environmental Quality who told me to call my local Department of Emergency Services. When I called DES, I got an answering machine that said they were on vacation. I was told repeatedly to call an Exxon hotline where the people that answered knew nothing about cleanup, if the oil is hazardous (which it is) and what was going on. They were just there to “take our information.” I called our County Health Department because they told people that the oil was just an “irritant.” When I talked to the lady there, she told me they were taking their information directly from Exxon and had done NO independent research on the health effects of exposure to crude oil or the chemicals in it.

Oil in Montana's Yellowstone River (NWF's Alexis Bonogofsky)

I saw birds trying to take off that couldn’t because of oil on their wings, I saw a spiny soft shell turtle dive into a glob of oil.

The government is telling us that Exxon is going to take care of everything and that they are doing oversight. I have seen no indication of this. I have called so many people that I know more than our government does about what is going on. We finally got a public relations person from Exxon to call us and he wouldn’t tell us what chemicals are in the oil or if any had been added. He told us to stay away from it and that we shouldn’t document the effects on the property “just to be safe” and yet no health warning has gone out to the public. They also told me “off the record” that I should move my livestock away from where the spill has impacted our farm.

There is a press conference sometime this morning with our DES and EPA and Exxon. We are going to go. Our summer pastures are ruined.

While the oil and gas industry likes to paint spills like this as an aberration, the National Wildlife Federation has documented that oil and gas disasters are tragically common:

According to the report, from 2000 to 2010, the oil and gas industry accounted for hundreds of deaths, explosions, fires, seeps, and spills as well as habitat and wildlife destruction in the United States.  These disasters demonstrate that the BP incident is not merely an accident but an industry pattern that places profit ahead of communities, local economies, and the environment.

Now the oil industry wants to build a new pipeline cutting right through America’s heartland. The Keystone XL pipeline wouldn’t carry just any oil – it would carry tar sands, one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet.

But we still have a chance to protect the people and wildlife along the proposed pipeline route. Please take a moment right now to ask President Obama to say no to tar sands.

UPDATE #2: Tuesday’s post has more information on how far the oil has spread & an update on Alexis.