BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Electronic monitoring equipment failed to detect a pipeline rupture that spewed more than 176,000 gallons of crude oil into a North Dakota creek, the pipeline's operator said Monday. 
  
 It's not yet clear why the monitoring equipment didn't detect the leak, Wendy Owen, a spokeswoman for Casper, Wyoming-based True Cos., which operates the Belle Fourche Pipeline, said. 
  
 A landowner discovered the spill near Belfield on Dec. 5, according to Bill Suess, an environmental scientist with the North Dakota Health Department. 
  
 Suess said the spill migrated about almost 6 miles from the spill site along Ash Coulee Creek, and it fouled an unknown amount of private and U.S. Forest Service land along the waterway. The creek feeds into the Little Missouri River, but Seuss said it appears no oil got that far and that no drinking water sources were threatened. The creek was free-flowing when the spill occurred but has since frozen over. 
  
 Suess said about 37,000 gallons of oil had been recovered as of Monday. 
  
 Owen said the pipeline was shut down immediately after the leak was discovered. The pipeline is buried on a hill near Ash Coulee creek, and the "hillside sloughed," which may have ruptured the line, she said. 
  
 "That is our No.1 theory but nothing is definitive" Owen said. "We have several working theories and the investigation is ongoing." 
  
 True Cos. has a history of oil field-related spills in North Dakota and Montana, including a January 2015 pipeline break into the Yellowstone River. The 32,000-gallon spill temporarily shut down water supplies in the downstream community of Glendive, Montana, after oil was detected in the city's water treatment system. 
  
 The 6-inch steel Belle Fourche Pipeline is mostly underground but was built above ground where it crosses Ash Coulee Creek, Suess said. 
  
 Owen said the pipeline was built in the 1980s and is used to gather oil from nearby oil wells to a collection point. 
  
 The company has hired Alberta, Canada-based SWAT Consulting Inc. that specializes in cold-weather oil spill cleanups, Suess said. 
  
 About 60 workers were on site Monday, and crews have been averaging about 100 yards daily in their cleanup efforts, he said. Some of the oil remains trapped beneath the frozen creek. 
  
 "It's going to take some time," Suess said of the cleanup. "Obviously there will be some component of the cleanup that will go toward spring." 
  
 True Cos. operates at least three pipeline companies with a combined 1,648 miles of line in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, according to information the companies submitted to federal regulators. Since 2006, the companies have reported 36 spills totaling 320,000 gallons of petroleum products, most of which was never recovered. 
  
 Federal pipeline safety regulators initiated 19 enforcement activities against the three True pipeline companies since 2004. Those resulted in $537,500 in proposed penalties, of which the company paid $397,200, according to Department of Transportation records. 
  
 The potential for a pipeline leak that might taint drinking water is at the core of the disputed four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, where thousands of people have been protesting its construction in southern North Dakota. That pipeline would cross the Missouri River. Dallas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners says the Dakota Access pipeline would include safeguards such as leak detection equipment and that workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas could close valves within three minutes if a breach is detected. 
  
 ___ 
  
 Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report. ||||| FILE - This Oct. 11, 2013 file photo shows cleanup at the site of a Tesoro Corp. pipeline break that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil into a Tioga, N.D., wheat field. The massive oil spill still... (Associated Press) 
  
 FILE - This Oct. 11, 2013 file photo shows cleanup at the site of a Tesoro Corp. pipeline break that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil into a Tioga, N.D., wheat field. The massive oil spill still isn't fully cleaned up three years and three months after it happened. The company responsible hasn't... (Associated Press) 
  
 BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Three years and three months later, a massive oil spill in North Dakota still isn't fully cleaned up. The company responsible hasn't even set a date for completion. 
  
 Though crews have been working around the clock to deal with the Tesoro Corp. pipeline break, which happened in a wheat field in September 2013, less than a third of the 840,000 gallons that spilled has been recovered — or ever will be, North Dakota Health Department environmental scientist Bill Suess said. 
  
 A farmer, Steve Jenkins, who'd smelled the crude oil for days, discovered the spill in his northwestern North Dakota field near Tioga — his combines' tires were covered in it. 
  
 While the nearest home was a half-mile away and the state said no water sources were contaminated and no wildlife hurt, one of the largest onshore oil spills recorded in the U.S. serves for some as a cautionary example, especially given a recent pipeline break about 150 miles south and ongoing debates over the four-state Dakota Access pipeline. 
  
 "What happened to us happened and we can't go back," said Patty Jensen, Steve's wife. This month's pipeline break in Belfield, which belched an estimated 176,000 gallons of oil into a creek that feeds into the Little Missouri River, a tributary of the Missouri River, really rankled her. 
  
 "But I get really upset when I hear of a new one and I wonder what is being done to prevent these spills," she said. 
  
 Both the Tesoro break and the Belfield break occurred on 6-inch steel pipelines — a part of a large network pipelines that crisscross western North Dakota's oil patch. By comparison, the Dakota Access pipeline is made of 30-inch steel and will carry nearly 20 million gallons daily. 
  
 The Tesoro spill was not far from where oil was first discovered in North Dakota in 1951.The Texas-based company and federal regulators have said a lightning strike may have caused the 2013 rupture in the pipeline, which runs from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, near the Canadian border. 
  
 North Dakota regulators initially thought just 750 barrels of oil was involved in the spill, but later updated the amount exponentially. They also expanded the affected acreage from about 7 — the size of seven football fields — to about 13 acres, Suess said. The cleanup has cost Tesoro more than $49 million to date and is expected to top $60 million, according to recent filings to the state. 
  
 Tesoro spokeswoman Destin Singleton said she could not immediately confirm the numbers, and noted the cleanup completion date remains unknown. The pipeline was monitored remotely, but the company has said the spill wasn't detected. 
  
 Crews have had to dig as deep as 50 feet to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of oil-tainted soil, Suess said. The company has now switched to special equipment that cooks hydrocarbons from crude-soaked soil in a process called thermal desorption before putting it back in place. 
  
 The Dec. 5 spill on the Belle Fourche pipeline also was discovered by a landowner. Crude oil migrated about almost 6 miles from the spill site along Ash Coulee Creek, and fouled an unknown amount of private and U.S. Forest Service land along the waterway. Seuss said it appears no oil got as far as the Little Missouri River, and no drinking water sources were threatened. 
  
 It's not yet clear why monitoring equipment didn't detect the leak, according to Wendy Owen, a spokeswoman for Casper, Wyoming-based True Cos., which operates the pipeline. 
  
 The Dakota Access pipeline builder, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, has said the project will be safe and that workers remotely monitoring the pipeline will be able to shut it down if a leak is detected. 
  
 Owen said didn't know how long it would take to clean the Belle Fourche spill, given that wintry weather was slowing down the progress, or how much it would cost. 
  
 Patty Jensen is aware of the glacial pace of oil spill cleanups. For more than three years, it's been part the couple's life. 
  
 "They are there working away 24 hours a day, seven days a week — it's pretty amazing," she said. "The noise from the equipment used to bug us but we've grown used to it." ||||| BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A company with a history of oil field-related spills in North Dakota and Montana is being hampered by winter weather in its cleanup of a "significant" pipeline break that leaked crude oil into a tributary of the Little Missouri River in western North Dakota, a regulator said Thursday. 
  
 Bill Suess, an environmental scientist with the North Dakota Health Department, said the Belle Fourche Pipeline Co. spill was discovered Monday by a landowner near Belfield. The cause of the leak is under investigation and the amount of the spill is unknown, in part because of recent blizzards and subzero temperatures throughout North Dakota, he said. 
  
 "Anytime you have cold temperatures, it's going to hinder cleanup and the investigation," Suess said. 
  
 He said the spill migrated about 2½ miles from the spill site along Ash Coulee Creek, and it fouled an unknown amount of private and U.S. Forest Service land along the waterway. He said state and federal inspectors have been monitoring the spill and that it appeared to be contained. The creek was free-flowing when the spill occurred but has since frozen over. 
  
 The spill in the creek is about 20 miles upstream of the Little Missouri River. Suess said it did not appear that any of the oil reached the river and no drinking water sources were affected. 
  
 The 6-inch steel pipeline is mostly underground but was built above ground as it crossed the creek, Suess said. The pipeline is used to gather oil from nearby oil wells to a collection point. 
  
 "It is not a transmission line so overall it won't have a major impact on oil movement," Suess said. 
  
 Belle Fourche Pipeline is part of Casper, Wyoming-based True Cos. A spokeswoman for True, Wendy Owen, said the pipeline was shut down immediately after the leak was discovered and crews had been cleaning it up since. She said it was not known how much oil leaked due to the pipeline breach. 
  
 Owen said she "couldn't even begin to speculate" what caused the breach and that the company was doing its "best to assess the entire situation and what the next step will be." 
  
 True Cos. operates at least three pipeline companies with a combined 1,648 miles of line in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, according to information the companies submitted to federal regulators. 
  
 Since 2006 the companies have reported 36 spills totaling 320,000 gallons of petroleum products. Most of the product spilled was never recovered, including after a January 2015 pipeline break into the Yellowstone River. The 32,000-gallon spill temporarily shut down water supplies in the downstream community of Glendive, Montana, after oil was detected in the city's water treatment system. 
  
 The companies' spills caused combined damage of almost $11 million, with most of that attributed to the Glendive spill, records show. A federal investigation into that spill is pending. 
  
 Kevin Pranis, a spokesman for the Laborers District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota, which represents some workers building the disputed four-state, $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, said Thursday that regulators need to provide better oversight of the True Cos. 
  
 True Cos. also owns Black Hills Trucking Inc., which is accused of illegally dumping saltwater, a byproduct of oil production, in 2014 on a road in northwestern North Dakota. The three-member North Dakota Industrial Commission that includes Gov. Jack Dalrymple is pursuing $950,000 in fines against Black Hills Trucking, but there has been a dispute over whether the commission has jurisdiction. 
  
 ___ 
  
 Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report. |||||

Write a summary.
– Three years and three months later, a massive oil spill in North Dakota still isn't fully cleaned up. The company responsible hasn't even set a date for completion. Though crews have been working around the clock to deal with the Tesoro Corp. pipeline break, which happened in a wheat field in September 2013, less than a third of the 840,000 gallons that spilled has been recovered. While the nearest home was a half-mile away and the state said no water sources were contaminated and no wildlife hurt, one of the largest onshore oil spills recorded in the US serves for some as a cautionary example, especially given a recent pipeline break in Belfield, about 150 miles south, and ongoing debates over the four-state Dakota Access pipeline. Texas-based company Tesoro and federal regulators have said a lightning strike may have caused the 2013 rupture in the pipeline, which runs from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, near the Canadian border. The cleanup has cost Tesoro more than $49 million to date and is expected to top $60 million, according to recent filings to the state. Crews have had to dig as deep as 50 feet to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of oil-tainted soil, North Dakota Health Department environmental scientist Bill Suess says. The company has now switched to special equipment that cooks hydrocarbons from crude-soaked soil in a process called thermal desorption before putting it back in place. Landowners, not the monitoring equipment in place, discovered both the Tesoro and Belfield breaks, reports the AP.
BISMARK, N.D. (AP) — Elektronisk övervakningsutrustning misslyckades med att upptäcka en rörledningsruptur som spydde ut mer än 176.000 gallons råolja i en North Dakota bäck, sade rörledningens operatör måndag. Det är ännu inte klart varför övervakningsutrustningen inte upptäckte läckan, Wendy Owen, en taleskvinna för Casper, Wyoming-baserade True Cos., som driver Belle Fourche Pipeline, sade. En markägare upptäckte spillet nära Belfield den 5 december, enligt Bill Suess, en miljövetare vid North Dakota Health Department. Suess sa att spillet migrerade ungefär 6 miles från spillplatsen längs Ash Coulee Creek, och det förorenade en okänd mängd privat och amerikansk skogsservice land längs vattenvägen. Bäcken mynnar ut i Little Missouri River, men Seuss sade att det verkar som om ingen olja kommit så långt och att inga dricksvattenkällor var hotade. Bäcken var friflytande när spillet inträffade men har sedan frusit över. Suess sade att omkring 37.000 liter olja hade återvunnits från och med måndagen. Owen sa att rörledningen stängdes av direkt efter läckan upptäcktes. Rörledningen är begravd på en kulle nära Ash Coulee bäck, och "sluttningen sloughed," som kan ha spruckit linjen, sade hon. "Det är vår teori nr 1, men ingenting är definitivt", sa Owen. "Vi har flera arbetsteorier och utredningen pågår." True Cos. har en historia av oljefältsrelaterade utsläpp i North Dakota och Montana, inklusive en januari 2015 pipeline bryta in i Yellowstone River. Det 32 000-gallonutsläppet stängde tillfälligt av vattenförsörjningen i nedströmssamhället Glendive, Montana, efter att olja upptäckts i stadens vattenreningssystem. Den 6-tums stål Belle Fourche Pipeline är mestadels under jord men byggdes ovan jord där den korsar Ash Coulee Creek, sade Suess. Owen sade att rörledningen byggdes på 1980-talet och används för att samla olja från närliggande oljekällor till en uppsamlingsplats. Företaget har anlitat Alberta, Kanada-baserade SWAT Consulting Inc. som specialiserat sig på kallvädersoljespillsanering, sade Suess. Omkring 60 arbetare var på plats måndag, och besättningarna har i genomsnitt omkring 100 meter dagligen i sina saneringsinsatser, sade han. En del av oljan är fortfarande instängd under den frusna bäcken. "Det kommer att ta lite tid", Suess sa om saneringen. "Självklart kommer det att finnas någon del av saneringen som kommer att gå mot våren." True Cos. driver minst tre rörledningsföretag med en kombinerad 1 648 miles linje i Montana, North Dakota och Wyoming, enligt uppgifter företagen lämnat till federala tillsynsmyndigheter. Sedan 2006 har företagen rapporterat 36 spill på totalt 320 000 gallons petroleumprodukter, varav de flesta aldrig återvanns. Federala tillsynsmyndigheter för rörledningssäkerhet inledde 19 tillsynsåtgärder mot de tre True pipeline-företagen sedan 2004. Dessa resulterade i 537 500 dollar i föreslagna straff, varav företaget betalade 397 200 dollar, enligt transportdepartementets register. Potentialen för en pipeline läcka som kan förorena dricksvatten är kärnan i den omtvistade fyra-staten, $ 3,8 miljarder Dakota Access Pipeline, där tusentals människor har protesterat mot dess konstruktion i södra North Dakota. Den rörledningen skulle gå över Missourifloden. Dallas-baserade pipelineföretaget Energy Transfer Partners säger att Dakota Access pipeline skulle innehålla skyddsanordningar såsom utrustning för läckagedetektering och att arbetare som övervakar rörledningen på distans i Texas skulle kunna stänga ventiler inom tre minuter om ett brott upptäcks. ___ Associerad pressskribent Matthew Brown i Billings, Montana, bidrog till denna rapport. Fil - Denna oktober 11, 2013 fil foto visar sanering på platsen för en Tesoro Corp. pipeline bryta som spillde mer än 20 000 fat olja i en Tioga, N.D., vete fält. Den massiva oljeutsläpp fortfarande... (Associated Press) FILE - Denna oktober 11, 2013 filfoto visar sanering på platsen för en Tesoro Corp. pipeline bryta som spillde mer än 20 000 fat olja i en Tioga, N.D., vetefält. Det massiva oljeutsläppet är fortfarande inte helt upprensat tre år och tre månader efter det hände. Det ansvariga företaget har inte... (Associated Press) BISMARK, N.D. (AP) – Tre år och tre månader senare är ett massivt oljeutsläpp i North Dakota fortfarande inte helt städat upp. Det ansvariga företaget har inte ens bestämt ett datum för färdigställandet. Även besättningar har arbetat dygnet runt för att ta itu med Tesoro Corp. pipeline break, som hände i ett vetefält i september 2013, mindre än en tredjedel av de 840 000 gallons som spillts har återfunnits — eller någonsin kommer att bli, North Dakota hälsoavdelningen miljövetaren Bill Suess sade. En bonde, Steve Jenkins, som hade luktat på råoljan i flera dagar, upptäckte spillet i sitt nordvästra North Dakota-fält nära Tioga – hans kombinationsdäck var täckta av det. Medan det närmaste hemmet var en halvmile bort och staten sade att inga vattenkällor var förorenade och inga vilda djur skadas, en av de största oljeutsläpp på land registreras i USA fungerar för vissa som ett varnande exempel, särskilt med tanke på en nyligen pipeline avbrott cirka 150 miles söderut och pågående debatter om den fyra-stat Dakota Access pipeline. "Det som hände oss hände och vi kan inte åka tillbaka", sa Patty Jensen, Steves fru. Den här månadens pipelinebrott i Belfield, som hällde uppskattningsvis 160 000 liter olja i en bäck som lever i Little Missouri River, en biflod till Missourifloden, rankade henne verkligen. "Men jag blir riktigt upprörd när jag hör talas om en ny och jag undrar vad som görs för att förhindra dessa spill", sade hon. Både Tesorobrytningen och Belfieldbrytningen inträffade på 6-tums stålledningar – en del av en stor nätledning som korsar västra North Dakotas oljeplätt. Som jämförelse är Dakota Access pipeline tillverkad av 30-tums stål och kommer att bära nästan 20 miljoner liter dagligen. Tesoro spill var inte långt från där olja först upptäcktes i North Dakota 1951.Texas-baserade företag och federala tillsynsmyndigheter har sagt en blixtnedslag kan ha orsakat 2013 bristning i rörledningen, som går från Tioga till en järnvägsanläggning utanför Columbus, nära den kanadensiska gränsen. North Dakota-regulatorer trodde till en början att bara 750 fat olja var inblandad i utsläppet, men uppdaterade senare mängden exponentiellt. De utvidgade också den drabbade arealen från omkring 7 — sju fotbollsplaners storlek — till omkring 13 tunnland, sade Suess. Saneringen har kostat Tesoro mer än $49 miljoner hittills och förväntas toppa $60 miljoner, enligt senaste arkiv till staten. Tesoro taleskvinna Destin Singleton sade att hon inte omedelbart kunde bekräfta siffrorna, och noterade saneringen slutförande datum är fortfarande okänd. Rörledningen övervakades på distans, men företaget har sagt att utsläppet inte upptäcktes. Besättningen har varit tvungen att gräva så djupt som 50 fot för att ta bort hundratusentals ton oljehaltig jord, sade Suess. Företaget har nu övergått till specialutrustning som kokar kolväten från råsumpad jord i en process som kallas termisk desorption innan man sätter tillbaka den på plats. Dec. 5 spill på Belle Fourche pipeline upptäcktes också av en markägare. Råolja migrerade omkring 6 miles från spillplatsen längs Ash Coulee Creek, och förorenade en okänd mängd privat och amerikansk skogsservice land längs vattenvägen. Seuss sa att det inte verkar som om ingen olja kom så långt som till Little Missourifloden, och inga dricksvattenkällor hotades. Det är ännu inte klart varför övervakningsutrustning inte upptäckte läckan, enligt Wendy Owen, en taleskvinna för Casper, Wyoming-baserade True Cos., som driver rörledningen. Den Dakota Access pipeline byggare, Texas-baserade Energy Transfer Partners, har sagt att projektet kommer att vara säkert och att arbetare fjärrövervakar rörledningen kommer att kunna stänga av den om en läcka upptäcks. Owen sa att han inte visste hur lång tid det skulle ta att rensa Belle Fourche spill, med tanke på att vintriga vädret saktade ner utvecklingen, eller hur mycket det skulle kosta. Patty Jensen är medveten om oljeutsläppsrensningen. I mer än tre år har det varit en del av parets liv. "De är där och arbetar bort 24 timmar om dygnet, sju dagar i veckan — det är ganska fantastiskt", sade hon. "Oljudet från utrustningen som användes för att störa oss, men vi har vant oss vid det." BISMARK, N.D. (AP) — Ett företag med en historia av oljefältsrelaterade utsläpp i North Dakota och Montana hindras av vinterväder i sin sanering av en "betydande" pipeline bryta som läckte råolja i en biflod till Little Missouri River i västra North Dakota, en regulator sade torsdag. Bill Suess, en miljöforskare vid North Dakota Health Department, sade Belle Fourche Pipeline Co. spill upptäcktes måndag av en markägare nära Belfield. Orsaken till läckan är under utredning och mängden spill är okänd, delvis på grund av snöstormar och minusgrader i hela North Dakota, sade han. "När du har kalla temperaturer, kommer det att hindra sanering och utredning," Suess sade. Han sa att spillet migrerade ungefär 2,5 mil från spillplatsen längs Ash Coulee Creek, och det förorenade en okänd mängd privat och amerikansk skogsservice land längs vattenvägen. Han sade att delstats- och federala inspektörer har övervakat utsläppet och att det verkade vara begränsat. Bäcken var friflytande när spillet inträffade men har sedan frusit över. Spillet i bäcken ligger cirka 20 mil uppströms Little Missouri River. Suess sade att det inte verkade som om någon av oljan nådde floden och inga dricksvattenkällor påverkades. Stålledningen på 6 tum är mestadels underjordisk men byggdes ovan jord när den korsade bäcken, sade Suess. Rörledningen används för att samla olja från närliggande oljekällor till en uppsamlingsplats. "Det är inte en transmissionsledning så totalt sett kommer det inte att ha en stor inverkan på oljerörelser", sade Suess. Belle Fourche Pipeline är en del av Casper, Wyoming-baserade True Cos. En taleskvinna för True, Wendy Owen, sade rörledningen stängdes av direkt efter läckan upptäcktes och besättningar hade städat upp det sedan. Hon sa att det inte var känt hur mycket olja som läckt på grund av rörledningens brytning. Owen sa att hon "inte ens kunde börja spekulera" vad som orsakade brottet och att företaget gjorde sitt "bästa för att bedöma hela situationen och vad nästa steg blir." True Cos. driver minst tre rörledningsföretag med en kombinerad 1 648 miles linje i Montana, North Dakota och Wyoming, enligt uppgifter företagen lämnat till federala tillsynsmyndigheter. Sedan 2006 har företagen rapporterat 36 spill på totalt 320 000 liter petroleumprodukter. Den största delen av produkten som spilldes ut återvanns aldrig, bland annat efter ett pipelinebrott i Yellowstonefloden i januari 2015. Det 32 000-gallonutsläppet stängde tillfälligt av vattenförsörjningen i nedströmssamhället Glendive, Montana, efter att olja upptäckts i stadens vattenreningssystem. Företagens spill orsakade sammanlagda skador på nästan 11 miljoner dollar, med det mesta attribuerat till Glendivespillet, journaler visar. En federal utredning av det där spillet är på väg. Kevin Pranis, en talesman för Laborers District Council of Minnesota och North Dakota, som representerar några arbetare som bygger den omtvistade fyra staten, $ 3,8 miljarder Dakota Access Pipeline, sade torsdag att tillsynsmyndigheter måste ge bättre tillsyn över True Cos. True Cos. äger även Black Hills Trucking Inc., som anklagas för att olagligt ha dumpat saltvatten, en biprodukt av oljeproduktionen, 2014 på en väg i nordvästra North Dakota. Den tre ledamöter North Dakota Industrial Commission som inkluderar Gov. Jack Dalrymple jagar 950000 dollar i böter mot Black Hills Trucking, men det har varit en tvist om huruvida kommissionen har jurisdiktion. ___ Associerad pressskribent Matthew Brown i Billings, Montana, bidrog till denna rapport. Skriv en sammanfattning.
BISMARK, N.D. (AP) — Electronic surveillance equipment failed to detect a pipeline rupture spewing more than 176,000 gallons of crude oil into a North Dakota creek, said the pipeline operator Monday. It is not yet clear why the surveillance equipment did not detect the leak, Wendy Owen, a spokeswoman for Casper, Wyoming-based True Cos., who operates Belle Fourche Pipeline, said. A landowner discovered the spill near Belfield on December 5, according to Bill Suess, an environmental scientist at the North Dakota Health Department. Suess said the spill migrated approximately 6 miles from the spill site along Ash Coulee Creek, and it contaminated an unknown amount of private and American forest service land along the waterway. The creek flows into the Little Missouri River, but Seuss said that it appears that no oil has come that far and that no drinking water sources were threatened. The creek was free-flowing when the spill occurred but has since frozen over. Suess said that about 37,000 gallons of oil had been recovered as of Monday. Owen said the pipeline was shut down immediately after the leak was discovered. The pipeline is buried on a hill near Ash Coulee creek, and "the slope sloughed," which may have cracked the line, she said. "It's our theory No. 1, but nothing is definite," Owen said. "We have several working theories and the investigation is ongoing." True Cos. has a history of oil field-related discharges in North Dakota and Montana, including a January 2015 pipeline breaking into the Yellowstone River. The 32,000-gallon spill temporarily shut down the water supply in the downstream community of Glendive, Montana, after oil was discovered in the city's water purification system. The 6-inch steel Belle Fourche Pipeline is mostly underground but was built above ground where it crosses Ash Coulee Creek, Suess said. Owen said the pipeline was built in the 1980s and is used to collect oil from nearby oil wells to a collection point. The company has hired Alberta, Canada-based SWAT Consulting Inc. who specializes in cold weather oil spill cleanup, Suess said. About 60 workers were on the scene Monday, and the crews have an average of about 100 meters daily in their cleanup efforts, he said. Some of the oil is still trapped under the frozen creek. "It's gonna take some time," Suess said about the cleanup. "Of course there will be some part of the cleanup that will go towards spring." True Cos. operates at least three pipeline companies with a combined 1,648 miles line in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, according to information provided by the companies to federal regulators. Since 2006, companies have reported 36 spills on a total of 320,000 gallons of petroleum products, most of which were never recovered. Federal pipeline safety regulators launched 19 enforcement measures against the three True pipeline companies since 2004. These resulted in $537,500 in proposed penalties, of which the company paid $397,200, according to the Department of Transport's registry. The potential for a pipeline leak that can contaminate drinking water is the core of the contested four-state, the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, where thousands of people have protested against its construction in southern North Dakota. That pipeline would cross the Missouri River. Dallas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners says that the Dakota Access pipeline would contain protective devices such as leak detection equipment and that workers monitoring the pipeline remotely in Texas would be able to close valves within three minutes if a breach is detected. ___ Associated press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report. File - This October 11, 2013 file photo shows cleanup at the site of a Tesoro Corp. pipeline break that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil into a Tioga, N.D., wheat field. The massive oil spill still... (Associated Press) FILE - This October 11, 2013 file photo shows cleanup at the site of a Tesoro Corp. pipeline break that spilled more than 20,000 barrels of oil into a Tioga, N.D., wheat field. The massive oil spill is still not fully cleaned up three years and three months after it happened. The responsible company has not... (Associated Press) BISMARK, N.D. (AP) – Three years and three months later, a massive oil spill in North Dakota is still not fully cleaned up. The company responsible has not even set a date for completion. Even crews have worked around the clock to deal with Tesoro Corp. pipeline break, which happened in a wheat field in September 2013, less than a third of the 840,000 gallons spilled have been recovered — or ever will be, North Dakota health department environmental scientist Bill Suess said. A farmer, Steve Jenkins, who had smelled of crude oil for several days, discovered the spill in his northwestern North Dakota field near Tioga—his combination deck was covered in it. While the nearest home was half a mile away and the state said that no water sources were contaminated and no wild animals are damaged, one of the largest oil spills on land is recorded in the United States serves for some as a warning example, especially given a recent pipeline interruption about 150 miles south and ongoing debates about the four-state Dakota Access pipeline. "What happened to us happened and we can't go back," said Patty Jensen, Steve's wife. This month's pipeline break in Belfield, which poured an estimated 160,000 gallons of oil into a stream living in the Little Missouri River, a tributary of the Missouri River, really ranked her. "But I get really upset when I hear about a new one and I wonder what is being done to prevent these spills," she said. Both the Tesoro mining and the Belfield mining occurred on 6-inch steel lines—part of a large grid line crossing the oil patch of western North Dakota. For comparison, the Dakota Access pipeline is made of 30-inch steel and will carry nearly 20 million litres daily. Tesoro spills were not far from where oil was first discovered in North Dakota in 1951.Texas-based companies and federal regulators have said a lightning strike may have caused 2013 rupture in the pipeline, which runs from Tioga to a railway facility outside Columbus, near the Canadian border. North Dakota regulators initially believed that only 750 barrels of oil were involved in the discharge, but later updated the amount exponentially. They also extended the affected area from about 7 — seven football fields — to about 13 acres, said Suess. The cleanup has cost Tesoro more than $49 million to date and is expected to top $60 million, according to recent archives to the state. Tesoro spokeswoman Destin Singleton said she could not immediately confirm the numbers, and noted the cleanup completion date is still unknown. The pipeline was monitored remotely, but the company has said the discharge was not detected. The crew has had to dig as deep as 50 feet to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of oily soil, Suess said. The company has now switched to special equipment that boils hydrocarbons from crude sumped soil in a process called thermal desorption before putting it back in place. Dec. 5 spills on the Belle Fourche pipeline were also discovered by a landowner. Crude oil migrated about 6 miles from the waste site along Ash Coulee Creek, polluting an unknown amount of private and American forest service land along the waterway. Seuss said it does not appear that no oil got as far as the Little Missouri River, and no drinking water sources were threatened. It is not yet clear why surveillance equipment did not detect the leak, according to Wendy Owen, a spokeswoman for Casper, Wyoming-based True Cos., who operates the pipeline. The Dakota Access pipeline builder, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, has said that the project will be safe and that workers remotely monitor the pipeline will be able to shut it off if a leak is detected. Owen said he didn't know how long it would take to clear Belle Fourche spills, given that wintery weather slowed development, or how much it would cost. Patty Jensen is aware of the oil spill cleanup. For more than three years, it has been part of the couple's life. "They're there working away 24 hours a day, seven days a week — that's pretty amazing," she said. "The noise of the equipment used to disturb us, but we've gotten used to it." BISMARK, N.D. (AP) — A company with a history of oil field-related discharges in North Dakota and Montana is hindered by winter weather in its cleanup of a "significant" pipeline break that leaked crude oil in a tributary of the Little Missouri River in western North Dakota, a regulator said Thursday. Bill Suess, an environmental scientist at the North Dakota Health Department, said Belle Fourche Pipeline Co. spill was discovered Monday by a landowner near Belfield. The cause of the leak is under investigation and the amount of spillage is unknown, partly due to blizzards and freezing temperatures throughout North Dakota, he said. "When you have cold temperatures, it will prevent cleanup and investigation," Suess said. He said the spill migrated about 2.5 miles from the spill site along Ash Coulee Creek, and it polluted an unknown amount of private and American forest service land along the waterway. He said state and federal inspectors have been monitoring the discharge and that it appeared to be limited. The creek was free-flowing when the spill occurred but has since frozen over. The spill in the creek is about 20 miles upstream of the Little Missouri River. Suess said it did not appear that any of the oil reached the river and no drinking water sources were affected. The 6 inch steel pipe is mostly underground but was built above ground when it crossed the creek, Suess said. The pipeline is used to collect oil from nearby oil wells to a collection point. "It's not a transmission line so overall it won't have a major impact on oil movements," Suess said. Belle Fourche Pipeline is part of Casper, Wyoming-based True Cos. A spokeswoman for True, Wendy Owen, said the pipeline was shut down immediately after the leak was discovered and crews had cleaned it up then. She said it was not known how much oil was leaked due to the pipeline's breakage. Owen said that she "could not even start speculating" what caused the crime and that the company did its "best to assess the whole situation and what the next step will be." True Cos. operates at least three pipeline companies with a combined 1,648 miles line in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming, according to information provided by the companies to federal regulators. Since 2006, companies have reported 36 spills of a total of 320 000 litres of petroleum products. The majority of the product spilled was never recycled, including following a pipeline break in the Yellowstone River in January 2015. The 32,000-gallon spill temporarily shut down the water supply in the downstream community of Glendive, Montana, after oil was discovered in the city's water purification system. The companies' spills caused aggregate damage of nearly $11 million, with most of it attributed to the Glendive spillage, records show. A federal investigation into that spill is on its way. Kevin Pranis, a spokesman for the Laborers District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota, representing some workers building the contested four state, the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, said Thursday that regulators must provide better oversight of True Cos. True Cos. also owns Black Hills Trucking Inc., which is accused of illegally dumping salt water, a by-product of oil production, in 2014 on a road in northwestern North Dakota. The three members North Dakota Industrial Commission which includes Gov. Jack Dalrymple chases $950,000 fine against Black Hills Trucking, but there has been a dispute over whether the Commission has jurisdiction. ___ Associated press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report. Write a summary.
– Tre år och tre månader senare är ett massivt oljeutsläpp i North Dakota fortfarande inte helt städat. Det ansvariga företaget har inte ens bestämt ett datum för färdigställandet. Även besättningar har arbetat dygnet runt för att ta itu med Tesoro Corp. pipeline break, vilket hände i ett vetefält i september 2013, mindre än en tredjedel av de 840 000 gallons som spillt har återfunnits. Medan närmaste hem var en halvmil bort och staten sade att inga vattenkällor var förorenade och inga vilda djur skadas, en av de största oljeutsläpp på land registreras i USA tjänar för vissa som ett varnande exempel, särskilt med tanke på en nyligen pipeline avbrott i Belfield, cirka 150 miles söderut, och pågående debatter om den fyra-stat Dakota Access rörledning. Texas-baserade företaget Tesoro och federala tillsynsmyndigheter har sagt att ett blixtnedslag kan ha orsakat 2013 års bristning i rörledningen, som går från Tioga till en järnvägsanläggning utanför Columbus, nära den kanadensiska gränsen. Saneringen har kostat Tesoro mer än $49 miljoner hittills och förväntas toppa $60 miljoner, enligt senaste arkiv till staten. Besättningarna har varit tvungna att gräva så djupt som 50 fot för att ta bort hundratusentals ton oljehaltig jord, North Dakota Health Department miljövetaren Bill Suess säger. Företaget har nu övergått till specialutrustning som kokar kolväten från råsumpad jord i en process som kallas termisk desorption innan man sätter tillbaka den på plats. Markägare, inte övervakningsutrustningen på plats, upptäckte både Tesoro- och Belfield-brotten, uppger AP.
“Three years and three months later, a massive oil spill in North Dakota is still not fully cleaned. The company responsible has not even set a date for completion. Even crews have worked around the clock to deal with Tesoro Corp. pipeline break, which happened in a wheat field in September 2013, less than a third of the 840,000 gallons spilled have been recovered. While the nearest home was half a mile away and the state said that no water sources were contaminated and no wild animals are damaged, one of the largest oil spills on land is recorded in the United States serving for some as a warning example, especially given a recent pipeline interruption in Belfield, about 150 miles south, and ongoing debates about the four-state Dakota Access pipeline. Texas-based company Tesoro and federal regulators have said that a lightning strike may have caused the 2013 rupture in the pipeline, going from Tioga to a railway facility outside Columbus, near the Canadian border. The cleanup has cost Tesoro more than $49 million to date and is expected to top $60 million, according to recent archives to the state. The crews have had to dig as deep as 50 feet to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of oily soil, North Dakota Health Department environmental scientist Bill Suess says. The company has now switched to special equipment that boils hydrocarbons from crude sumped soil in a process called thermal desorption before putting it back in place. Landowners, not the on-site surveillance equipment, discovered both the Tesoro and Belfield offenses, AP states.