Rising river complicates Exxon oil spill cleanup (AP)

LAUREL, Mont. – The initial cleanup along the oil-fouled Yellowstone River could be tested Tuesday as rising waters make it harder for Exxon Mobil Corp. to get to areas damaged by the crude spilled from a company pipeline.

The National Weather Service predicts the Yellowstone River, swelling with mountain snowmelt amid hot summer temperatures, will peak at Billings on Tuesday afternoon — a day after Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. President Gary Pruessing promised to do "whatever is necessary" to mop up oil spilled from the duct at the river bottom. That pledge included sending crews to walk the river banks in search of pooled oil once the flooding river recedes.

The 12-inch pipeline burst Friday upstream from a refinery in Billings, where it delivered 40,000 barrels of oil a day. Up to 1,000 barrels, or 42,000 gallons, of crude oil oozed into the legendary Yellowstone before the leak was stopped, according to Exxon Mobil estimates.

After downplaying assertions from state and federal officials that damage from the spill was spread over dozens of miles, Exxon Mobil acknowledged under political pressure Monday that the scope of the leak could extend far beyond a 10-mile stretch of the river. Company officials also said their statements were misconstrued.

"We're not limiting the scope of our cleanup to the immediate site," Pruessing said at a news conference along the river near Laurel, as crews mopped up oil in the background. "We are not trying to suggest in any way that that's the limit of exposure."

The 20-year-old Silvertip pipeline followed a route that passes beneath the river. It was temporarily shut down in May after Laurel officials raised concerns that it could be at risk as the Yellowstone started to rise. Also twice in the last year, regulators warned Exxon Mobil of several safety violations along the line.

The company decided to restart the line after examining its safety record and deciding it was safe, Pruessing said.

The cause of the rupture has not yet been determined, but company and government officials have speculated that high waters in recent weeks may have scoured the river bottom and exposed the pipeline to damaging debris.

The Yellowstone River at Billings had dropped nearly 2 feet by Monday from its peak Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service. But temperatures reached the mid-90s Sunday, causing the melt of mountain snow to accelerate.

It is possible cleaned areas would become fouled again as waters rise.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who earlier criticized the company's inspection of the spill, planned to tour the damaged areas Tuesday.

Underscoring rising anger over the spill among some riverfront property owners, Pruessing was confronted after his news conference Monday by a goat farmer and environmental activist who said his partner was sickened by oil fumes and had to be taken to the emergency room.

"I need to know what we've been exposed to. People are sick now," Mike Scott said. Scott's partner, Alexis Bonogofsky, was diagnosed Monday with acute hydrocarbon exposure after she experienced dizziness, nausea and trouble breathing, he said.

Pruessing said air and water monitoring had not revealed any health risks. But he told Scott the company would provide the public with more information.

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement Monday afternoon that officials were still taking air and water samples to determine the impacts.

EPA officials said they and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel conducted an aerial assessment of the Yellowstone from Laurel to 30 miles downstream of Billings, finding oil deposits along the river banks, in slow water and in small pools in backwaters at intermittent points.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, which oversees pipelines, notified Exxon Mobil in July 2010 of seven potential safety violations and other problems along the pipeline. Two of the warnings faulted the company for its emergency response and pipeline corrosion training.

Transportation Department spokeswoman Patricia Klinger said the company has since responded to the warnings and the case was closed.

The company also was cited for "probable violations" in a February letter. Those included inadequate pipeline markers in a housing development, a section of pipeline over a ditch covered with potentially damaging material and debris, vegetation in a housing area that covered a portion of line and prevented aerial inspections, and a line over a canal not properly protected against corrosion.

The company responded in a March letter that it had corrected all of the problems, most of them within a few weeks of being notified. Company spokesman Alan Jeffers said there was no direct connection between those problems and the pipeline failure.

"These are important things we needed to take care of, and we took care of them by the time we got the notice," Jeffers said. No fines were issued, he said.

The Yellowstone spill has amplified calls from some safety advocates and environmentalists who want the government to impose more stringent regulations on the industry.

Anthony Swift, a policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the fact that Exxon Mobil's Silvertip line was apparently in compliance with federal rules underscores that those rules need to be strengthened.

"These are the sort of spills that we shouldn't be tolerating," Swift said. "We need to incorporate tougher safety standards."

The company said only one case of wildlife damage — a dead duck — had been reported, but Pruessing said that could not be confirmed. A local newspaper, the Billings Gazette, has run pictures of a turtle and a group of pelicans apparently with oil on them.

If another surge of water pushes oil further into back channels as expected, it could be a potential threat to fisheries, said Bruce Farling, executive director of Trout Unlimited's Montana chapter. Farling said there are many fish eggs and recently hatched fish in those channels.

The stretch of the Yellowstone where the spill occurred contains sauger, bass catfish, goldeye, trout and, farther downstream, below Miles City, native pallid sturgeon.

"If we get a bunch of oil in some of these backwater areas, these are precisely where these small fish rear," Farling said.

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Associated Press correspondent Matt Volz in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.

Exxon Mobil says oil leaked into Yellowstone River (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil Corp leaked as many as 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River in Montana and has been shut down, the company said.

Exxon officials said on Sunday there were traces of oil up to 10 miles downriver from the site of what they called a "very unusual" event, though the governor of Montana said the spill may have spread further.

The U.S. oil company said it had slowed processing rates at its Billings refinery following the leak but did not expect supply disruptions in the area.

Exxon found the leak from the EMPCo pipeline early on Saturday morning. The pipeline runs only in Montana, from Silver Tip to Billings.

The cause of the leak remains unclear. Exxon estimated the oil release at anywhere from 750 to 1,000 barrels. One barrel of oil is equivalent to 42 gallons (163 liters), and the pipeline typically transports 40,000 barrels a day.

"We had no indications that there were any issues with this pipeline," Gary Pruessing, the president of EMPCo, told reporters on a conference call on Sunday.

Pruessing said the pipeline had been shut in May as a precaution as the river approached a high-water point, but that it was judged to be safe and turned back on.

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer questioned Exxon's contention that the spill into the Yellowstone, the longest undammed river in the United States, was concentrated within a 10-mile area.

"This is a lot of wild country, and they haven't any idea whether it's 5 miles, 50 miles or 100 miles, they're guessing," Schweitzer, a Democrat, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

A full assessment of the oil's spread will not be possible until small boats can be deployed in the river, he said.

Exxon said earlier that the river's turbulence made it unsafe to use boats, but that the company had sent aircraft to view the spill.

Exxon discovered the leak when a loss of pressure was detected on the pipeline, which dates from 1991, and within six minutes the line was shut off, company officials said.

Some residents were briefly evacuated as a precaution but were allowed to return home later.

CONCERN FOR FARM FIELDS, WILDLIFE

Exxon said it would have about 100 people working on the spill by the end of Sunday.

Alan Jeffers, an Exxon spokesman, said in response to Schweitzer's comments that the company made its assessment that the spill appeared to be confined to within a 10-mile area based on what it had observed and what was reported to it.

"The bulk of it appears to be in that area, but we're continuing to look for oil along the river," he said.

Schweitzer said he was concerned about damage from the spill to farm fields recently flooded when the Yellowstone overflowed, and to the state's trout fishing industry.

Air monitoring has detected no threat to residents from the spill, EMPCo's Pruessing said. Municipal water systems also have shown no signs of infiltration by the oil, he said.

The Billings Gazette on Sunday cited conflicting reports from Exxon officials as to the extent of the leak. The paper carried pictures of absorbent bags piled along the side of a road running parallel to the river, ribbons of oil sticking to logs and one of a turtle stuck in oily mud.

Environmental cleanup firm Clean Harbors is on-site assisting with the early remediation efforts, Exxon said.

The leak came one day after a Maryland jury awarded plaintiffs suing Exxon $1.5 billion in damages for a 2006 leak at a gasoline station.

(Additional reporting by Emilie Ritter, Alex Dobuzinskis and Laura Zuckerman; Editing by Dale Hudson and Maureen Bavdek)

Flooding hinders shipping on the Mississippi River (AP)

JACKSON, Miss. – Cargo was slowly moving along the bloated Mississippi River after a costly daylong standstill, while officials kept an eye on the lower Delta where thousands of acres of farmland could be swamped by water that is inching closer to the top of a backwater levee.

The Coast Guard for much of Tuesday closed a 15-mile stretch at Natchez, Miss., north of New Orleans, blocking vessels heading toward the Gulf of Mexico and others trying to return north after dropping off their freight.

Barges that haul coal, timber, iron, steel and more than half of America's grain exports were allowed to pass, but at the slowest possible speed. Such interruptions could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars for each day the barges are idled, as the toll from the weeks of flooding from Arkansas to Louisiana continues to mount.

Wakes generated by passing barge traffic could increase the strain on levees designed to hold back the river, officials said. Late Tuesday, barges were able to move again at the lowest possible speed, the costs of the slowdown hard to calculate.

Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton said he met Monday with Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh and other officials when they discussed the river closing, the latest tough move to try to ensure the levees are not breached.

"You have two hospitals, a convention center, a hotel and a spa on the Louisiana side. On our side, we have a restaurant and bar and several very old, historic buildings that we are trying to save," Middleton said.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Mark Moland said tests indicated sandbagging and other measures to protect most of the area could withstand the wakes if the vessels were ordered to move through at the slowest possible speed. It's not clear how long barges would only be able to move one at a time. The river is expected to stay high in some places for weeks.

Such interruptions could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars for every day of idled barges as the toll from the weeks of Mississippi flooding continues to escalate.

In Vidalia, La., across the river from Natchez, Carla Jenkins was near tears as she watched the first tows and barges move north after the reopening.

"The water from the wakes just keeps coming into our buildings. We're going to have a lot more damage," said Jenkins, who owns Vidalia Dock and Storage.

Some of the worst flooding in Mississippi is in the area from Vicksburg northeast to Yazoo City, along the Yazoo River. The Yazoo Backwater Levee north of Vicksburg connects with the main Mississippi River levee. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials had predicted that at least a foot of water could pour over the top, flooding tens of thousands of acres of farmland in the Delta.

The corps brought in new gauges and did another analysis and now believes the levee will only be overtopped by inches, if at all, agency spokesman Wayne Stroupe said.

But he said: "It's going to be very close."

If the levee overtops, it likely will be when the gauges at Vicksburg reach 57.2 or 57.3 feet. The Mississippi River is projected to crest Thursday there 57.5 feet, more than a foot above the 1927 record.

Vivian Taylor, a 60-year-old substitute teacher, described a sense of denial for many residents of her neighborhood in south Vicksburg before the flooding got bad.

"We thought maybe it wouldn't get that bad," she said. "When we saw water starting to build up in fields behind the neighborhood we started to get worried. Then we started seeing snakes and worms coming up out of the ground and we became very concerned."

Throughout the spring, the Mississippi is a highway for barges laden with corn, soybeans and other crops headed from the Midwest to ports near New Orleans, where they get loaded onto massive grain carriers for export around the world. The closure helped push corn, wheat and soybean prices higher Tuesday.

Traders, however, are more worried that flooded acreage won't be replanted with corn, said John Sanow, an analyst with DTN Telvent.

On a typical day, some 600 barges move back and forth along the Mississippi, with a single vessel carrying as much cargo as 70 tractor-trailers or 17 rail cars, according to Bob Anderson, spokesman for the Mississippi Valley Division of the Army Corps of Engineers.

"When it shuts, there's really no alternative," said Jim Reed, president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association.

Also Tuesday, at least 10 freight terminals along the lower Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans suspended operations because of high water. Vessels scheduled to use the terminals will either have to wait out the high water or divert elsewhere. Delaying a vessel by even a single day often costs $20,000 to $40,000, port officials said.

The closure at Natchez was the third in a series of recent moves designed to protect homes and businesses behind levees and floodwalls along the river.

Over the weekend, the Army Corps opened the Morganza Spillway, choosing to flood rural areas with fewer homes to protect Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Another spillway near New Orleans was opened earlier, but it did not threaten homes.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said there are more than 4,800 people displaced in Mississippi due to flooding, with more than 2,000 of them in Vicksburg and surrounding areas in Warren County. MEMA Spokesman Jeff Rent said more than 6,000 people in Mississippi could be displaced before the flood is over.

Vicksburg Deputy Police Chief John Dolan said a levee that had been built around an old refinery collapsed Monday, letting water onto the property and sending gas fumes into the air. Environmental experts tested the air and found no immediate danger, Dolan said.

Warren County Sherriff Martin Pace said deputies continue to use boats to patrol neighborhoods.

"It's been good so far. We've had no major problems," Pace said. "So far, so good. We just need this water to get out of here."

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Online:

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/bcarre/missriver.asp

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Sayre reported from New Orleans. Associated Press writers Brian Schwaner in New Orleans; Scott Mayerowitz in New York, Christopher Leonard in St. Louis and Sheila Byrd in Jackson contributed to this report.

Costly Miss. River closure meant to protect levees (AP)

NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard has interrupted shipping along the major artery for moving grain from farms in the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico over fears that the bulging Mississippi River could strain levees that protect hundreds of thousands from flooding. Already, thousands have sought refuge from floodwaters up and down the river.

The Coast Guard said it closed the Mississippi River at the port in Natchez, Miss., because barge traffic could increase pressure on the levees. Heavy flooding from Mississippi tributaries has displaced more than 4,000 in the state, about half of them upstream from Natchez in the Vicksburg area.

Several barges were idled at Natchez at the time of the closure, and many more could back up along the lower Mississippi. It wasn't clear when the river would reopen, but port officials said the interruption could cost the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars per day.

The closure is the latest high-stakes decision made to protect homes and businesses that sit behind levees and floodwalls along the river. To take pressure off levees surrounding heavily populated New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the Army Corps of Engineers opened the key Morganza Spillway, choosing to flood more rural areas with fewer homes. Another spillway near New Orleans was opened earlier, but it doesn't threaten homes.

Most residents in the path of the Morganza's floodwaters have heeded the call to leave their homes. Bernadine Turner, who lives in a mandatory evacuation zone near Krotz Springs, La., spent a third day Monday moving her things out. Water from the Morganza opening was not expected to reach the town about 40 miles west of Baton Rouge for several days, but most residents were taking no chances.

"There's no doubt it's going to come up. We don't have flood insurance, and most people here don't. Man, it would be hard to start all over," she said.

Economic pain from the flooding could be felt far from the South because of the river closure. During the spring, the Mississippi is a highway for towboats pushing barges laden with corn, soybeans and other crops brought down from the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi river systems. Farm products come down the river to a port near New Orleans to be loaded onto massive grain carriers for export.

The Port of South Louisiana is the largest grain port the country, handling about 54 percent of U.S. exports. The port's operations director, Mitch Smith, said the extent of the impact from the Natchez closing will depend on how long it lasts and how many barges are trapped upriver.

"Definitely, if it is a long closure, we will feel an economic impact," Smith said.

At least 10 freight terminals along the lower Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans have suspended operations because of the high water, said Roy Gonzalez, acting president of the Gulf States Maritime Association. In many cases, their docks are already at water level or going under, he said.

Vessels scheduled to use the terminals will either have to wait out the high water or divert to other terminals or ports. Additional costs for delaying any one vessel routinely run $20,000 to $40,000 per day, port officials say.

It's not clear how long it will take for normal operations to return at Natchez and other terminals. The river is expected to crest Saturday in Natchez at 63 feet, down a half-foot than earlier predictions, but almost five feet above a record set in 1937. It could take weeks for the water to recede.

All along the Mississippi River, a small army of engineers, deputies and even inmates is keeping round-the-clock watch at the many floodwalls and earthen levees holding the water back. They are looking for any droplets that seep through the barriers and any cracks that threaten to turn small leaks into big problems.

The work is hot and sometimes tedious, but without it, the flooding could get much worse.

"I volunteered for this," said jail inmate Wayne McClinton, who was helping with the sandbagging effort in northern Louisiana's Tensas Parish. "It's a chance to get out in the air, to do something different. It's not boring like prison is."

Although the job requires 24-hour vigilance, Reynold Minsky, president of a north Louisiana levee district, said there are some places in his mostly rural district of forest and farmland where he will not ask anyone to go after sundown.

"Unless we've got a serious situation that we know we've found before dark, we don't ask these people to go into these wooded areas because of the snakes and the alligators," Minsky said while taking a break from helicopter tours of the levees. "That's inhumane."

Minsky's 5th Louisiana Levee District is plagued these days by "sand boils," places where river water has found a way through earthen levees and bubbled up on the dry side like an artesian well. He insists they are no reason for alarm. If the water is clear, as it has been so far, that means the levee is not eroding. Stopping the boil involves ringing it with sandbags.

In New Orleans, workers inspect the levees daily when the water is high to look for potential trouble spots. The levees there — which are not among those that failed along canals after Hurricane Katrina — have survived high water before and will survive this latest test, city officials said. The opening of the Morganza has stopped the river's rise at New Orleans, but the relief valve sent water gushing into the mostly rural Atchafalaya River basin.

"There's no question about it, New Orleans is safe, New Orleans is dry and the system's working as it was designed," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Tuesday morning on CBS' "The Early show."

For those in the path of waters let loose by the Morganza, a tense waiting game has begun. On Monday, 75-year-old Leif Montin watched a truck tow away a storage pod containing most of the furniture he and his wife have in their home in Butte Larose, a community emptied by residents fleeing the rising waters.

"I guess you guys are ready to get out of here," the driver said to Montin.

"Yep. Pretty much," responded Montin.

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Online:

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/bcarre/missriver.asp

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Kunzelman reported from Krotz Springs and Butte LaRose, La. Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans.; Mary Foster in Tensas Parish, La.; and Holbrook Mohr and Shelia Byrd in Mississippi.