Tuesday 5 July 2011
A mass clean-up of the Yellowstone River is now underway. ExxonMobil have set up a central command unit alongside US government environmental authorities to try and disperse the crude oil which leaked into the river on Saturday morning.
The spill came from a pipeline that runs from Silver Tip to Billings in Montana. Nearby residents in the town of Laurel were initally evacuated but have now returned to their homes. Today ExxonMobil announced a unified command has been established with the Environmental Protection Agency and park authorities and has broken down the clean up into separate teams recovering oil, monitoring air and water quality, and addressing questions from local residents.
Currently 280 people are working along the river bank and more may be drafted in if needed. The clean up is concentrated in and around 12 miles of the pipeline leak but the authorities are now monitoring a radius of up to 144 miles to see if any of the oil has potentially spread downriver.
ExxonMobil say no one has been injured in the spill and there's no threat to water supplies.