Dec 14 - Not much to see here folks, its hardly noticeable really. But if you zoom in on the above picture near that red building in the center of the still you can see the ground looks awfully dark and nothing like the ground so near. What is it? Diesel we are told as a very long row of flammable placarded DOT 111 tank cars stretch to the horizon above the stain. Granted that Bakken oil runs through here at the Missoula rail yard from North Dakota all the way out to Washington before taking either a hard right turn if heading to Canada or a hard left if heading down to California refineries. Whatever the case, just 7,000 gallons of diesel escaped a “pipeline” and met dirt the day before. Of course thats only a quarter of one of those tank cars so either they are running light or their empties are nowhere near empty if its not diesel.
Unfortunately, word didnt really spread until another two days after this photo even the local fire department was a bit miffed they didnt get a courtsey notice but then again, this is a railroad line and terriotry is territory. The rail yard operator felt obligated to do SOMETHING and scooped up the whole lot of dirt impacted by the semi-volatile fuel, down to 20 feet below grade no less. The final tally was that 2,600 gallons of liquids were recovered and another 1,100 cubic yards of dirt were hauled off, it may not add up to 7,000 and of course we are comparing apples to petroleum hydrocarbons but the main thing is even if it somehow got all the way down to the deep aquifer if anything remained down there past 20 damn feet its not the end of the world because that area is already contaminated from historical impacts from the railroad going back over a century. Thank goodness for small favors.