A pipeline leak in northwest North Dakota has spilled an estimated 20,000 barrels, or 840,000 gallons, of crude oil and produced water onto agricultural land, the Department of Environmental Quality said Monday.

A pipeline leak in northwest North Dakota has spilled an estimated 20,000 barrels, or 840,000 gallons, of crude oil and produced water onto agricultural land, the Department of Environmental Quality said Monday.

The spill about 4 miles northwest of Stanley in Mountrail County involved emulsion, a mixture of crude oil and produced water that emerges from a well before they are separated, the department said. Produced water, also known as saltwater or brine, is a waste byproduct of oil production.

…

It is unknown how long the leak went undetected by Hess Corp., which owns the pipeline. Bill Suess, manager of the Department of Environmental Quality’s spill investigation program, said the company first became aware of a potential problem Sept. 2 when they “started getting an indication their numbers weren’t right” – 10 days before the spill was discovered and reported.

"They went in and did some tests. The tests came back negative,” said Suess. “And then on the 12th they found the dead vegetation.”

Hess discovered and reported the spill on Friday, according to the incident report.

The cause of the spill has not been identified beyond “equipment failure” and remains under investigation, according to Suess.

The leak occurred from a 6-inch carbon steel pipeline called a “flow line,” used to transport the oil, natural gas and produced water from a well to a treater unit where the products are separated.

Regulators are still investigating the extent of the spill underground, including possible groundwater impacts, Suess said.

…

“We don’t know yet how deep the impacts go,” said Suess.

Good thing the government of North Dakota isn’t functionally bankrupt and the EPA will surely jump into action and farmers are currently having absolutely no labor nor financial problems.

Or uh, thoughts and prayers for all the ground water under all that farmland, I guess.

  • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
    91·
    3 days ago

    Not exactly. They realized their numbers were “off”, but not what that meant. 10 days later they did some sort of “tests”, which came back negative. Then the saw the dead vegetation. That was when the started to realize there was a spill.

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      9·
      3 days ago

      Hrm, almost like their entire paradigm for detecting leaks is an inadequate crock of shit?

      Ah well, who cares, externalities are someone else’s problem.

        • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
          4·
          3 days ago

          Why would they need to do it well?

          The only thing they had to do well for the last 40 years was lie to idiots.

          That phase is largely ending now, onward we go to cybepunk dystopia / Gilead / corpo feudalism.

            • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
              2·
              3 days ago

              Oh I agree, they are incompetent at running their own operation, by their own standards, but my larger point is that they don’t really care as much about being competent… as they do about appearing to be competent… its all just a mechanism that ultimately serves for them to feel superior to other people.