Clean Up Continues after Oil Pipeline Rupture in Mayflower, Arkansas

Clean up continues after the rupture earlier this week of a 60 year old Exxon pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas. Independent news accounts have been difficult to come by as Exxon has been controlling the area, and press have not been able to document the full extent of the damage.

The spill occurred March 29th, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only yesterday posted photographs detailing the extent of the damage.

According to the EPA, ExxonMobil and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), the spill poses no health hazards for the public. ADEQ issued this statement on their website:

“Overall, contaminant levels in the community continue to be below levels likely to cause health effects for the general population with the exception of the cleanup areas where emergency responders are directly working. On-going air monitoring will continue throughout the local community and in the evacuated neighborhood.”

As people wait for more complete accounts of what happened in Arkansas, new concerns have been raised about the wisdom of the Keystone XL pipeline project currently under review at the US State Department. The project would construct a massive pipeline through the United States to Texas, transporting Canadian Tar Sands crude for refining and then export.