Yellowstone Oil Spill

[Flatrock]

Any of you guys affected by the oil pipeline rupture on the Yellowstone? Man I swear if it isn't one thing it is something else...

 

[cornfed]

Been wondering that myself.Way to nice of a river to imagine oil floating down it.

 

[DavidKeenan]

I was by there yesterday Didn't really see much going on. The river was roaring from the run off. It as so muddy I don't think you could even see any oil. There really has been a lot of different happenings this year. Temp says 100 in billings now. That will Telly bring down the snow from the mts. It's Telly going to be hard to clean that spill up with river rolling like it is.

 

[Carrion Carrier]

I guess it will mostly just flow downstream to Lake Sakakawea. Sad.

To this day when I pull into a town with multiple gas stations I choose the one that isn't Exxon because of the Valdez. I don't think that will ever change.

 

[sweetnectar]

I'd guess most of that oil is somewhere in the Mississippi by now. From what I can gather there are some areas (a few miles of stream bank) that will need some work. I'm really curious how the news will report the incident nationally...IE will people picture the mountains around Yellowstone National Park being effected, or slimmed river otters, and a huge river of tar choking everything in its path as they read the news?

 

[mdunc8]

The only report I saw today was an online video from CNN. They made it a point to mention the spill wasn't in the Park. However, they did talk about all the big rainbows down there that feed on insects floating on the surface of the water, which will cause the fish suffocate as they become covered in oil. To make matters worse, according to CNN, there's quite a few grizzlies in the Billings area that rely on those rainbows for food.

 

[huntbux]

Sad to hear. Hope they do a good job cleaning it up and that the animals in the area aren't too affected.

 

[sweetnectar]

big rainbows down there that feed on insects floating on the surface of the water, which will cause the fish to suffocate as they become covered in oil. To make matters worse, according to CNN, there's quite a few grizzlies in the Billings area that rely on those rainbows for food.

That makes me smile.

 

[A-con]

This situation is disgusting.
If oil companies want to expand their drilling opportunities in the U.S., places like the Rockies and Alaska, spills like this absolutely can not be allowed to happen.
Exxon would be wise to spare no expense in clean up and restoration.

 

[Horn Seeker]

I think, with the water as high as it is, this oil will be dispersed FAR and wide. I am not much on oil spills, maybe Rockydog will chime in and give us a little info on how it can affect a river and the aquatics associated with it. The Ystone is running over the banks alot right now. I'd imagine this stuff is being deposited on floodplains and on a lot of vegetation.

When the water goes down (gonna be 3-4 weeks) I'll be out doing some surveys downstream of Billings. I'd think this clean up crew will have their work cut out for them... Does anyone know if thin layers of this stuff on vegetation and such will break down from UV relatively quickly or if its real persistent or what??? I'm sure I'll learn a lot more about it in the coming week or so.

 

[Southwind]

Yes, this sucks. They just put in part of the new pipe line through and across a couple of my fav fishing spots and I would hate to see this happen,

 

[mdhunter]

The old saying of "the solution to pollution is dilution" will hopefully ring true in this situation. Exxon is knocking back 10 billion a quarter so paying for the cleanup should be no big deal. Let's hope the damage is minimal. I have always been surprised at the evaporation rate of spills. I am not sure if this product was refined or not as that will certainly affect the rate.

 

[Brandenbowhunter]

Exxon jsut shoots themselves in the foot...it stinks...because it affects all of us. Even if it is a simple clean up the damage is done...

 

[Horn Seeker]

There will be minimal real impacts... some inconveniences for landowners/crop failures, but they will likely make more money on the situation and have less work to do this summer! :0)

42,000 gallons of crude (its unrefined) is a lot and if it was during summer low flow I think it would have been really nasty. But at the time of the spill, the Ystone was running approximately 418,000 gallons of water per SECOND... so yeah... big time dilution... In the night, she passed over 18 trillion gallons of water!! A ratio of about 43 thousand to 1, water to oil.

Anyhow, its still nasty. They are actually working pretty hard on it right now. There are clean up crews strewn from Laurel to just east of Billings with big sucker trucks and giant diapers and such that suck up oil. Unfortunately, there is a lot of floodplain and island stuff they just cant safely get into right now. Im going out with them tommorrow (yay, been stuck in office for weeks!)...

 

[Ben Lamb]

There will be minimal real impacts... some inconveniences for landowners/crop failures, but they will likely make more money on the situation and have less work to do this summer! :0)

42,000 gallons of crude (its unrefined) is a lot and if it was during summer low flow I think it would have been really nasty. But at the time of the spill, the Ystone was running approximately 418,000 gallons of water per SECOND... so yeah... big time dilution... In the night, she passed over 18 trillion gallons of water!! A ratio of about 43 thousand to 1, water to oil.

Anyhow, its still nasty. They are actually working pretty hard on it right now. There are clean up crews strewn from Laurel to just east of Billings with big sucker trucks and giant diapers and such that suck up oil. Unfortunately, there is a lot of floodplain and island stuff they just cant safely get into right now. Im going out with them tommorrow (yay, been stuck in office for weeks!)...

This is all true. However, with the number of warnings and violations that Exxon had on the Silvertip pipeline, the entire thing was avoidable.

Lack of enforcement from the EPA, lack of care from Exxon (who has a track record of ignoring safety violations in favor of increased profits) all contributed to this happening, as did our thirst of fossil fuels. More and more events such as this are going to occur until we figure out some kind of replacement for oil.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Word. Cant deny that.

 

[sweetnectar]

If anyone is reading this from Exon I want you to know that I'm offering my grizzly protection services at a screaming deal. Please send me a PM if you are interest in hiring a panel of experts (which might even include Ben Lamb if he's willing and other hunt talk wildlife experts) to keep all the majestic grizzlies away from the oil contamination. It would be an awful shame if one of these geat giants was to ingest any large rainbow trout infected with oil.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Totally in. I'll bring a gun that can't hit the side of the barn. We will save the Bears, and the fish, and the whales. It will be glorious. We will ride in to the sunset w/ an oily sheen around our yellow hazmat suits, on our trusty steeds, the bears.

 

[DavidKeenan]

Saw in the news where some lady already had contracted a respiratory disease from smelling all the foul smell. Mmmmmnnnn$$$$$$$$$$. ?
Yes its a bad thing that happened and all that I just thought wow when I heard the lady talking abouthe the disease that she contracted so quick

I'm no expert on the clean up. But I believe 90 percent of it will never be seen again. The river was and is flowing so fast the bulk was gone in a day. Let's see 9x24=216 miles in a day
Yes some does affect some if the area and that is sad but the worse part that I can see us hands digging deep in pockets.

 

[Ben Lamb]

We will make the bears force Exxon to pay for this suffering.