The amount of wastewater reported spilled by the company could more then fill two Olympic-size swimming pools. Cleanup and reclamation of the site will likely will take at least a year, he said.
Workers have begun excavating soil from portions of the affected area, Rockman said. Rockman did not immediately know how much land was affected. "There were no mapped underlying aquifers," Rockman said. No drinking water sources were threatened, he said. Rockman said the spill occurred about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the nearest water well in the area. Agency officials were on scene to oversee the cleanup and investigate the spill, said Rockman, who heads the department's division of water quality. It also was not immediately known what caused the leak to the pipeline. Rockman said it's unknown why the spill was not detected earlier. The pipeline was pressure-monitored for leak detection.
It was first reported by an area farmer, Rockman said. Rockman said Hess believed the 6-inch, steel-reinforced composite pipe had been leaking since at least July 21, but the company didn't discover the break until mid-August. He said the company vastly increased its estimate on Monday to 1.4 million gallons (63.6 million liters), or enough to more than fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools. 15, and estimated its size to be 8,400 gallons (31,797 liters). Karl Rockman, of the state Department of Environmental Quality, said Monday that New York-based Hess Corp., the pipeline's owner, reported the saltwater spill 8 miles (13 kilometers) northwest of Ray on Aug. (AP) - North Dakota regulators are investigating a massive spill of oilfield wastewater from a broken pipeline in the northwest part of the state that they say could take more than a year to clean up.
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