A ruptured oil pipeline has dumped more than 10,000 gallons of crude into a wetland area and nature preserve in southwestern Ohio. How’s that for a reminder that pipelines aren’t necessarily cleaner than oil trains?
The 1950s-era pipeline, owned by Sunoco Logistics, was sending oil from Texas up to refineries in Michigan. The spill was discovered Monday, but some neighbors reported smelling oil since late February.
Ohio officials are now testing air quality and drinking water, and cleanup workers are using heavy equipment to try to mop up the mess. The oil has pooled in a marsh not far from the Great Miami River. The Oak Glen Nature Preserve — home to deer, birds, woods, and wildflowers — has been temporarily closed.
“We do have a large area impacted. The good news is it’s contained. The bad news it’s a mile of creek impacted. It is going to be a big cleanup,” U.S. EPA official Steve Renninger told WKRC Cincinnati.
EPA via WLWTAnd another view of the oily mess.
