Following the rupture of Exxon's Pegasus pipeline in Arkansas on March 29, video has emerged of heavy Canadian crude oil flowing through the streets of suburban Little Rock.
As many as 40 homes in Mayflower, Ark., had to be evacuated, KTHV reported. "We could see oil running down the road like a river," one resident told the station.
By Sunday, Exxon claimed it had recovered 12,000 barrels of oil and water, according to Reuters. "The freestanding oil on the street has been removed. It's still damp with oil, it's tacky, like it is before we do an asphalt overlay," a local official told Reuters on Sunday.
Exxon's Pegasus pipeline carries crude oil over 800 miles from Patoka, Ill., to Nederland, Texas.
Friday's spill invigorated debate over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry Canadian crude from Alberta to the Texas Gulf coast.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tweeted over the weekend:
The Arkansas incident was the second spill of Canadian tar sands oil in a week. On March 27, a mile-long Canadian Pacific train hauling Canadian crude derailed in Minnesota, spilling 30,000 gallons about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
UPDATE 1:45PM: In response to the Arkansas spill, 350.org founder Bill McKibben said in an emailed statement, “We'd be wise to think about this as one more sad warning, like the spills in Kalamazoo and the Yelowstone River. What the people of Arkansas are enduring today is a reminder of why approving KXL, a pipeline ten times as large and running across the Oglalla Aquifer, defines a bad idea.”
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