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Shattered by Oil: Exxon Arkansas Spill and the People Left Behind, Part 1
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth McGowan on November 25th, 2013
InsideClimate: On March 29, 2013, an ExxonMobil oil pipeline that runs under a tiny residential neighborhood in Mayflower, Ark. split open and spilled 210,000 gallons of Canadian dilbit across backyards and streets and in waterways. InsideClimate News spent months reporting the spill [3] on the ground. In Part 1 of "Shattered by Oil" [4]—an ICN co-production with This American Land [5]—Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth McGowan [6] returns to Mayflower, Ark., to explore the fate of residents who are living with the...
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Trumped by Federal Authority Over Pipeline Safety, Ark. Lawmakers Must Settle for Symbolism
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth McGowan on October 7th, 2013
InsideClimate: Arkansas state legislators leery of lax federal oversight of oil pipelines have attempted to beef up safety standards to try to prevent another disastrous spill in their own backyard. They're aware, however, that their efforts are largely symbolic. That's because, in most instances, a state statute cannot infringe on the federal government's constitutional authority to set and enforce rules about petroleum pipelines. But for local lawmakers trying to calm constituent fears after a 65-year-old pipeline...
Exxon Pipeline Rupture: Amount of Oil Spilled Is Still Guesswork
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth McGowan on August 21st, 2013
InsideClimate: Homeowners whose lives are still in limbo after thousands of gallons of oil streamed into their neighborhood from a ruptured pipeline on March 29 [3]might never know precisely how much of the sticky black goo oil actually spilled. The working estimate is that 5,000 barrels—210,000 gallons—of Canadian heavy crude oil poured from a 22-foot break in ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline [4] on that Good Friday afternoon. But officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [5] and Exxon say the actual...
Sediment Tests Will Show If Mayflower Residents Saved Their Treasured Lake from Oil Spill
Posted by InsideClimate: Elizabeth McGowan on August 14th, 2013
InsideClimate: Anything for his treasured fishing hole. That was the mantra cycling through Jimmy Joe Johnson's head on the afternoon of Friday, March 29 as he rushed to keep a filthy stream of crude oil from spilling out of a cove and into the main body of Lake Conway. Standing at the edge of the lake more than four months later, Johnson had his fingers crossed that his efforts that day weren't for naught. Officials with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) [3] say they feel certain that soon-to-come...