{"id":82504,"date":"2016-11-07T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=82504"},"modified":"2016-11-06T14:38:29","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T14:38:29","slug":"north-dakota-had-292-oil-spills-in-2-years-officials-disclosed-1-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/11\/north-dakota-had-292-oil-spills-in-2-years-officials-disclosed-1-to-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"North Dakota Had 292 Oil Spills in 2 Years\u2013Officials Disclosed 1 to the Public"},"content":{"rendered":"

27 Oct 2016 – <\/em>North Dakota had nearly 300 oil pipeline spills in less than two years, none of which were reported to the public.<\/p>\n

From\u00a0January 2012 \u2013 September 2013, these pipeline spills were just a part of approximately 750 \u201coil field incidents\u201d that took place in the state without the public\u2019s knowledge, according to a report by The Associated Press<\/a>. It\u2019s estimated that around 4,328 barrels worth of oil were spilled in this period.<\/p>\n

In an another\u00a0case, a break in a Tesoro Corp. pipeline resulted in approximately 20,600 barrels of oil spreading over an area the size of seven football fields. Officials claimed that no wildlife or water sources were harmed by the spill, which apparently led them to conclude that the public did not need to be notified.<\/p>\n

The only incident in which the public was notified was an instance in which an oil truck was involved in a collision in 2012.<\/p>\n

While many of these spills were relatively small and arguably had little environmental impact, landowners expressed outrage that they were kept out of the loop. North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources director Lynn Helms said that they didn\u2019t want the public to become \u201coverwhelmed by little incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, landowners like wheat farmer Louis Kuster said it is \u201cabsolutely important for us to know\u201d if spills of any kind occur, particularly given his livelihood\u2019s reliance on the health of his land. Even a single barrel of spilled oil has the potential to ruin water sources and acres upon acres of valuable cropland.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, you don\u2019t know if there is a spill unless you find it yourself,\u201d Kuster said.<\/p>\n

While the release of AP\u2019s report ultimately led to more regulations obliging the public release of reported oil spills, including an online database of spills accessible to the public<\/a>, this history of secrecy provides a troubling context for the Sioux Tribe\u2019s distrust of the DAPL pipeline construction.<\/p>\n

The Sioux Tribe says<\/a> that the pipeline \u201cthreatens the Tribe\u2019s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the Tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a tense standoff with heavily armed police forces, dozens of protesters \u2013 referring to themselves as peaceful water protectors \u2013 were arrested today for demonstrating against the construction of the pipeline on what police say is private property.<\/p>\n

________________________________<\/p>\n

Nathan Wellman is a Los Angeles-based journalist, author, and playwright.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 usuncut.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27 Oct 2016 – From Jan 2012\u2013Sep 2013, these pipeline spills were just a part of approximately 750 \u201coil field incidents\u201d that took place in the state without the public\u2019s knowledge, according to a report by AP. In a tense standoff with heavily armed police forces, dozens of protesters \u2013 referring to themselves as peaceful water protectors \u2013 were arrested today for demonstrating against the construction of the pipeline on what police say is private property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}