Nearly 3 Million Gallons of Drilling Waste Spill from North Dakota Pipeline

Almost 3 million gallons of saltwater drilling waste spilled from a North Dakota pipeline earlier this month, a spill that’s now being called the state’s largest since the North Dakota oil boom began.

The brine, which leaked from a ruptured pipeline about 15 miles from the city of Williston, has affected two creeks, but it doesn’t currently pose a threat to drinking water or public health.  The pipeline’s operator — Summit Midstream Partners — discovered the spill on Jan. 6, but officials didn’t find out about the true size of the spill until this week.
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A main concern with brine that escapes into the environment is that it’s not your average, run-of-the-mill saltwater.  The drilling waste can contain heavy metals and even radioactive material, and is up to eight times saltier than seawater.  A July brine spill in North Dakota contaminated the soil and killed off vegetation.  Brine can poison plants and also depletes water in the soil, creating an environment too dry for plants.

Brine spills are also tough to clean up, especially if they impact a wide area of soil — the best way to help the soil recover is to flush it with fresh water, but that often takes a toll on freshwater supplies.  A 2006 million-gallon brine spill in North Dakota killed fish and forced ranchers to move, and still hasn’t totally been cleaned up.

These spills aren’t isolated incidents:  in 2013 alone, there were 74 saltwater spills in North Dakota.

Read more at Nearly 3 Million Gallons of Drilling Waste Spill from North Dakota Pipeline