oil spill

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Federal investigators say Exxon Mobil Corp.'s delayed response to a pipeline break beneath Montana's Yellowstone River made the spill far worse than it otherwise would have been.

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The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to relinquish oversight of Exxon Mobil's 1,000-barrel oil spill into the Yellowstone River, leaving the state to coordinate the remainder of the cleanup

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The cleanup of an estimated 840-gallon oil spill in northwestern Montana is finished after six weeks. The contractor, Indian Country Environmental Associates, completed the work on Sunday. Owner Gabe Renville says that his crew collected 20 55-gallon barrels of oil and water. The spill happened June 12 on an oil field on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation operated by Salt Lake City-based FX Energy.

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Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. has told federal regulators that its oil pipeline spill into Montana's Yellowstone River will cost an estimated $42.6 million. That figure was included in documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press as a result of a public information request submitted to federal pipeline regulators

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A federal pipeline safety official says inspectors found an "anomaly" in an oil pipeline a month before it ruptured in a Montana river, but the problem was not significant enough to force a shut down.

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An oil company says 420 to 630 gallons of crude leaked from a flow line at its field in northwestern Montana for up two weeks before the spill was discovered.

The leak at the FX Energy Inc. oil field east of Cut Bank is the second significant oil spill in Montana this month. The amount, 10 to 15 barrels, appears to be much less than the estimated 1,000 barrels that emptied into the Yellowstone River when an Exxon Mobil Corp. pipeline broke.

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Environmental groups are calling for full disclosure from Exxon to determine whether tar sands corrosion played a role in the Yellowstone oil spill. Dirty fuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth, Alex Moore says tar sands oil can corrode pipelines more quickly.

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A federal safety official says it will probably be months before investigators know what caused an ExxonMobil oil pipeline to rupture near Billings, Mont., spilling about 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River.

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Congressman, Denny Rehberg, has sent a letter to the Transportation Committee asking them to invite Montana’s Senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, to participate in a pipeline safety hearing on the ExxonMobil pipeline spill in the Yellowstone River.  In the letter to the full-committee chairman John Mica (FL-07) and the subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster (PA-09), he pointed out the importance of working together with the Senate to address the challenge.

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Cleanup crews are finding more oil-fouled parts along the Yellowstone River near Billings, as flood waters recede after an ExxonMobile pipeline failure. Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy says last weekend was the first time they were able to get boats on the river and  help is appreciated

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