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Warming Temps Complicate Yellowstone Oil Spill Cleanup

Human safety is the top priority as the oil spill recovery effort continues on the Yellowstone River.
Bridger Pipeline spokesman Bill Salvin says  temperatures are warming and that's making the river ice more unstable.

"So for every person that's standing on the ice, they have a person that's on an airboat holding the line they're connected to and that line's tied off to the boat as well. We want to make sure that we keep everyone who's responding to this safe. That's driving everything we do in terms of oil recovery on the ice."

About 30,000 gallons of oil spilled near Glendive earlier this month. Most of that remains in the river. Salvin says most of what’s been removed from the scene was taken out of the broken pipeline. More than 500 barrels of oil have since been recovered.  

"About 490 barrels from the pipeline and about 18 or so barrels that we've picked up from the river."

Salvin says there are now a total of 62 federal, state, and Bridger Pipeline responders on scene.

Edward O’Brien first landed at Montana Public Radio three decades ago as a news intern while attending the UM School of Journalism. He covers a wide range of stories from around the state.
edward.obrien@umt.edu.  
(406) 243-4065
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