Montana landowners who say their property along the Yellowstone River has been soiled by oil that leaked from an Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) pipeline are banding together to push the company to do more to restore the land.
A group of about 20 people who own hundreds of acres in the area met last night and agreed they would fight for complete cleanup and restoration of their land, said Kelly Goodman, who owns 100 acres off the river. A week after the spill, owners say cleanup crews have yet to visit some farms and some want independent air testing.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Goodman, 52, said in an interview at her home in Billings, Montana, yesterday. “I don’t think Exxon does either. They’re a big corporation. Do they care?”
The company, based in Irving, Texas, has apologized for the “inconvenience” caused by the estimated 1,000 barrels of oil that spilled into the river after its Silvertip pipeline ruptured near Laurel, Montana. It’s begun to process claims from some landowners for losses related to the July 1 spill, including paying for hay, fencing and iPhones, according to residents.
Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon, had no immediate response to e-mailed questions about the company’s spill response.
The Silvertip line, which was transporting about 40,000 barrels a day prior to the leak, runs 69 miles (111 kilometers) from Elk Basin, Wyoming, to Exxon’s refinery in Billings, Montana.
Independent Air Testing
Many residents still feel wary of the company and its assurances about cleanup efforts and the safety of air and drinking water, said Alexis Bonagofsky, 30, who helped organize the meeting and raises goats on a family farm in Billings.
An employee of the National Wildlife Federation, she remains skeptical of Exxon and plans to do her own independent air testing.
Preliminary tests showed no hydrocarbon presence in the river above drinking-water standards in the region, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday. Use of the water for irrigation poses no threat and municipal drinking water in the area is safe, the agency said. Final test results will be published in a few days, the EPA said.
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, pulled out of a leak-response group yesterday that includes Exxon and federal agencies because it has barred reporters from its meetings, violating state law.
Interests ‘Not Aligned’
“Our interests are clearly not aligned with those of Exxon Mobil,” Sarah Elliott, a spokesman for the governor, said yesterday.
Schweitzer has scheduled a public meeting today with affected landowners.
“We’re not going to just take Exxon’s word for it,” said Montana State Senator Kendall Van Dyk, a Democrat who represents Billings. “The biggest company in the world can afford to fix our infrastructure and protect our Yellowstone River.”
Van Dyk works for Trout Unlimited, a group that advocates for conservation.
Walking through a field on Goodman’s property that remained darkened by oil residue after the river receded, she said she didn’t know how the soil, the trees and the grass her sheep use for grazing would ever be completely cleaned up.
Yellowstone Flooding
Most of the oil is within 30 miles of the spill site in Laurel, although crude has been spotted 80 miles downstream near Miles City, Montana, the EPA said.
Flooding from the Yellowstone River, which peaked in the past week because of above-average snow melt, has hampered clean-up efforts on land that was already damaged by heavy erosion.
An estimated 544 officials from Exxon and local and state governments are involved in the response effort, including 360 who are in the field, the EPA said. The river, which flows through Yellowstone National Park, empties into the Missouri River in North Dakota.
Cleanup crews have yet to show up at the 100 acres of land owned by Goodman, who trains Belgian Shepherds in sheep-herding and raises wheat and sugar beets.
Rapidly flowing floodwaters on the Yellowstone have made oil hard to spot along the river’s main path, but the backwater channels and creek beds that make up an essential part of the river’s ecosystem are saturated, Goodman said. Her family has lived and farmed along the river for 130 years.
Gaseous Smell
A gaseous smell permeated the air near the water, which Goodman said had grown far less noxious than on July 2 when she awoke in her home and thought she had a gas leak.
The grayish residue of oil was visible on grass covering almost 40 acres of her property formerly used for hay to feed sheep.
Goodman said Exxon’s claim process was good. A company representative visited her home in response to her request for about 12 tons of hay to replace lost grazing fields.
Exxon’s cleanup efforts have been less visible, she said, with no one showing up on her land after numerous requests since July 2.
Bonagofsky, whose family farm is downstream from Goodman’s, has fared better with cleanup. Crews have laid out booms to contain the oil and prevent it from reaching shore. They’ve also put absorbent materials in the water to capture the oil.
Exxon paid $750 to replace her iPhone, which she dropped into oil-soaked water while documenting the spill. The company agreed to pay about $3,200 for electric fencing Bonagofsky can use to keep her goats from grazing near the crude.
Jim Sturn, 68, said he hasn’t seen the 40 or 50 ducks and geese that often traveled up and down the river before the spill, even amid the flood. Sturn’s house in Billings is less than 50 feet (15 meters) from the river bank.
“The wildlife has almost disappeared,” he said. “There isn’t anything out there. I haven’t seen almost anything.”
