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Sunday, August 17, 2008
Environment - More on: Major pipeline break near Indiana border
Updating this ILB entry from August 13th, Mark Wilson reports today in the Evansville Courier & Press:
If last weekend's oil pipeline break had happened somewhere other than a remote farm field in Wayne County, Ill., it might well have been labeled an environmental catastrophe."If you are going to have a spill of that magnitude, it was the right place to have it," said Sherman Greer, director of the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Emergency Management Agency.
The 5,000-barrel spill from a 20-inch interstate transit line owned by Marathon Oil Co. nearly reached the volume of the BP crude oil spill on Alaska's north slope region in 2006, in which about 6,357 barrels were reportedly lost.
Marathon's spill, however, seemed to have a minimal effect on the environment, at least in the short term. An initial assessment came up with wildlife deaths of two ducks, five small fish and a snapping turtle, according to Maggie Carson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
Unlike the Alaska spill, which came from a relatively small leak in an above-ground pipe, the Marathon Oil spill last weekend was an eruption from a pipeline buried 4 feet underground. The crude oil covered a three-acre area.
"It was more or less an explosion because it was under pressure, so it covered a large area. It went into farm fields and some areas where it was not immediately accessible," Carson said. "Considering the geographic area covered, this appears fairly minimal, but the agencies involved will conduct a formal damage process."
That assessment may well turn up additional damage, she said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 17, 2008 09:49 AM
Posted to Environment