The Big Spill

Something came about which gives me a good opportunity to explain a little bit about what I do. My title is "scientist", my business card says "biologist", and I like to say I'm a "wetland ecologist". I actually work for a consulting firm in the Twin Cities. We have a bunch of offices all over the midwest and western US, about 800 employees strong, and do mostly civil engineering. I work in the Natural Resources Group as a part of the Environmental Market Center. I mostly do wetland delineations. Think of a wetland as a swamp, bog, marsh, pond, whatever. I won't get into the technical definition, but what is important is that wetlands are regulated by the federal government (Executive Order #11990, Clean Water Act, amongst others) and by the state government in Minnesota. Most states have their own wetland protection laws now, differing slightly from the federal laws. So anyways, Joe Homeowner wants to build a shed on his property, but the place he wants to put it floods every spring (for at least 14 days). Well he can't build it in a wetland, but he needs to know where exactly this wetland is so he knows where he can build his shed. This is where I come in. I go out to the site to look at plants and dig holes to figure out exactly where the wetland boundary is. I put flags in the ground, then GPS a line around the wetland. Now Joe Homeowner knows where he can build his shed as to not get fined hugely. Anyways...short (kinda) explanation of what I do. So here's the story...
The Minnesota Pipeline Company wants to build a new pipeline from Canada to the Twin Cities oil refineries to meet increasing demand for oil. A big project, so they hire out another company to do the environmental work. This other company (to remain nameless) hires us to do a fourth of the wetland delineations for this pipeline. Our segment is 65 miles long through north/central Minnesota and parallels Minnesota Pipeline's existing pipeline. At the beginning of the project, we had to go to an 8 hour safety meeting explaining things like why not to dig holes on top of the pipe with millions of gallons of crude oil flowing through it. They are all about safety and how safety is their number one concern and there has only been one oil leak in like 60 years on their pipeline or whatever. They care about safety so much that we have to carry a "blunt tipped soil probe" (similar to this) to probe for pipes before we actually use a hand auger to dig 18 inches in the ground to see what the soils are like (this is part of the delineation process). We are mandated to carry this thing and can get in trouble if we don't have it. Ironic that the existing pipe is buried about 4 feet down, that our delineation requires us to dig to 18 inches max, and that our soil probe is only 24 inches long. Doesn't make sense to me. Hard hats too. I have a hard hat to protect me from things that may fall on my head while walking 65 miles through a cleared path 100 feet wide. Thank God I don't actually have to wear it, just strap it to my pack. Pain in the ass. Actually, we named our soil probe 'Paris' after a popular celebrity (also to remain nameless) because it's short, skinny, and useless. Anyways...we here's the juicy news. We didn't hear anything about it until my coworker's wife called and asked us about it. We had no idea. The pipeline ruptured!! About 20 miles southeast of where we were working. 67,000 gallons of oil were spilled from the pipe as it shot a geyser of crude oil 30 feet in the air. This photo is form the Brainerd Dispatch, a local paper which I conveniently picked up at my hotel where I'm staying this week.


See the article from the Minneapoils - St Paul paper, the Star Tribune, here...no word as to what caused it, but very interesting. Anyways, that's what I really wanted to write about. But I felt backstory was needed. So...there you have it. I'll try not to burst any pipes while I'm working...