1. REVIEWThursday, January 22, 2015 • Vol. 53, No. 7 • Glendive, Montana 75 Cents
RANGER
G L E N D I V E
Paul Peronard, on-scene coordinator with the Environmental Protection
Agency, shows Montana Gov. Steve Bullock the site of Saturday’s oil pipeline
spill on the Yellowstone River south of Glendive. Bullock flew into Glendive
Monday afternoon to be briefed on the situation. The governor signed a
disaster declaration for Dawson and Richland counties on Sunday.
Jason Stuart photo
Red Devils split
games
Getting the
rumors right
Photo spread:
Dealing with disaster
Page 8
Spare Parts:
The Rose will hold movie
that portrays local couple
Page 18Insider
Page 4
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Recovery is a major priority for every-
one from Montana Gov. Steve Bullock to
executives of the company whose pipeline
released a major crude oil spill into the Yel-
lowstone River near Glendive Saturday.
The spill, which contaminated the City of
Glendive’s water supply, was of sufficient
magnitude to provoke an emergency disas-
ter declaration for Dawson and Richland
counties by Bullock on Sunday afternoon.
On Monday, Bullock flew into Glendive
for a debriefing and to take stock of the
situation, visiting the site of the pipeline
break after the debriefing.
Bullock said he was taking the situation
“very seriously.”
“This is about our river, our people, our
agriculture and our fish,” Bullock said.
He added the state would use all means at
its disposal to address the situation.
“At the end of the day, it’s our river and
it’s our citizens and we’ll do all that it
takes,” Bullock said.
The governor was clear that he will hold
Bridger Pipeline, the Casper, Wyo. based
company that owns the pipeline, respon-
sible.
“The company will be accountable and
we’ll hold them accountable and get this
cleaned up,” Bullock said.
For his part, Tad True, vice president of
Bridger Pipeline, said his company was ac-
cepting full responsibility, including full
financial responsibility, for the disaster.
“We do apologize for any type of worry
that has come from the situation,” True
said. “I don’t think there’s anything worse
as an operator than to wake up to that
news.”
Ken Dockweiler, a Bridger representa-
tive and co-commander of the spill’s Uni-
fied Command team, shared similar senti-
ments with a crowd of concerned residents
gathered at Tuesday night’s meeting of the
Glendive City Council.
“On behalf of Bridger and the True fam-
ily, I just want to say we are deeply sorry
for what happened here,” Dockweiler said.
Paul Peronard, the on-scene coordinator
for the Environmental Protection Agency
and the Unified Command’s other co-com-
mander, did offer up some praise on Mon-
day for the response and cooperation from
Bridger so far.
“What I’m happy about is they’ve stepped
up and are going to do the lion’s share of
the work,” he said. “That’s not a situation
that happens every time.”
The breach of the oil pipeline Saturday
morning spilled approximately 1,200 bar-
rels (about 50,000 gallons) of oil into the
Yellowstone River south of Glendive.
The incident occurred on the Poplar
Pipeline, which runs underneath the Yel-
lowstone approximately nine river miles
upstream from Glendive.
Bridger detected a pressure drop on the
pipeline at approximately 10 a.m. Saturday
morning, indicating a possible malfunc-
tion. The company was able to shut down
the pipeline within 45 minutes after first
detecting the pressure drop.
Peronard said the time lapse from the
first sign of trouble to the pipeline’s shut-
down was “actually a pretty good response
time.”
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Lessons will be learned from
Saturday’s oil spill that could
lead to improved notification
to the public of such events in
the future.
That was part of the mes-
sage delivered to Glendive
residents who gathered for
Tuesday night’s public meet-
ings of the Dawson County
Commissioners and the Glen-
dive City Council.
Members of the oil spill’s
Unified Command team were
on hand at both meetings to
answer questions and address
the public’s concerns.
Overwhelmingly, the prima-
ry complaint from citizens at
both meetings was about the
length of time from when the
spill was first confirmed Satur-
day afternoon until the public
became aware of it.
Several complained that
their first sign of there being
an issue came when they no-
ticed a funny smell in their
water on Sunday or when they
visited local social media sites
that afternoon. Others com-
plained that they had called
the police department to re-
port the smell in the water,
only to be told the police didn’t
know anything.
“We know that we have a
problem,” said Commissioner
Adam Gartner about the fail-
ure to quickly communicate
news about the spill to the
public. “That’s something that
we’re going to have to work
on.”
Paul Peronard, the on-scene
coordinator for the Environ-
mental Protection Agency and
one of the Unified Command’s
co-commanders, said he un-
derstands the public’s frustra-
tion and that one of the major
takeaways from the spill was
there needs to be improve-
ments made in notifying the
public about environmental
disasters.
“I’ve been in this business
a long time, and the environ-
mental system lags behind all
other notifications,” Peronard
said.
At the city council meeting,
one resident asked why there
hadn’t been a public notice
broadcast on the Emergency
Broadcast System.
That system is run by the
National Weather Service out
of their Glasgow station. Jeff
Gates, the area Disaster and
Emergency Services field of-
ficer, accepted responsibility
for not thinking of that option.
“We slipped through the
cracks on that one,” Gates
said. “I completely spaced the
weather service. Don’t blame
(local DES coordinator Mary
Jo Gehnert). That one’s on
me.”
Despite the time it took to of-
ficially notify the public, Pero-
nard said the length of time
that passed from the first sign
of trouble with the oil pipeline
Saturday morning to the first
notification of local and state
officials to the mobilization of
a response team was not out of
the ordinary.
“When I look at the time line
that played out here, this was
pretty typical — on the good
side,” he said.
Peronard was also asked
how the response to Satur-
day’s spill compared to the
response to the 2011 Exxon
pipeline spill near Laurel. He
said the response times to this
spill compared very favor-
ably to that one, which he said
took two to three days for a
response team to mobilize for.
“I’ve got to suggest to you
this is a much better, easier re-
sponse than to the Exxon pipe-
line break,” Peronard said.
Residents with additional
questions should go to the
Dawson County Courthouse,
where the response team has
set up a “community center.”
Representatives from Bridg-
er Pipeline and Liz Chang from
Gov. Steve Bullock’s office will
be on hand there from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. daily to take com-
ments and answer questions.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrre-
porter@rangerreview.com.
By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Saturday’s crude oil spill in
the Yellowstone River con-
taminated the City of Glen-
dive’s water supply and led to
an advisory against drinking
it, though initial test results
suggest the water posed no
short-term public health risk.
City residents began report-
ing a bad smell emanating
from their water taps on Sun-
day afternoon. Preliminary
testing at the water treat-
ment plant early Monday
morning by Environmental
Protection Agency contrac-
tors detected the presence of
volatile organic compounds
in the water.
By late Monday afternoon,
the spill’s Unified Command
team decided to issue a pub-
lic advisory against drink-
ing city water or using it for
cooking.
The initial laboratory test
results from the water sam-
ples taken Monday showed
an elevated level of benzene
in the water, which would
account for the smell in the
water. The tests showed a
benzene level of 15 parts per
billion. The safety standard
for benzene in water is 5 ppb.
Benzene is a known carcino-
gen.
The test results were shared
with the Centers for Disease
Control to gauge the threat
the benzene levels posed to
public health.
CDC scientists determined
that while the level of ben-
zene present in the test sam-
ples was above the level for
long term consumption, it did
not pose any immediate pub-
lic health threat. The CDC
told the spill’s Unified Com-
mand team that they “do not
see that domestic use of this
water poses a short term pub-
lic health hazard.”
“(The CDC’s) short term
opinion is that it does not
present an excess cancer
risk,” Paul Peronard, the on-
scene coordinator for the
EPA and co-commander of
the Unified Command team,
told a crowd of citizens gath-
ered at the public meeting of
the Dawson County Commis-
sioners Tuesday night.
Nevertheless, concern over
the elevated levels of benzene
in the water prompted the
command team on Monday
afternoon to begin arrange-
ments to truck in bottled
water to Glendive. The first
trucks arrived in Glendive
Tuesday morning for distri-
bution to city residents.
Officials from the response
team have said several times
over the last couple of days
that when the spill was first
reported, there was little
worry about any threat to
Glendive’s water system.
“If you had asked me Sat-
urday, I would have said it’s
very unlikely for it to get into
the water plant intake,” Pero-
nard said.
It was thought unlikely be-
cause the city’s water intake
is 14 feet below the river sur-
face and the oil spilled is a
very light crude that should
stay afloat on the water’s sur-
face.
However, concerns about
the water system were el-
evated to the highest prior-
ity once the reports of a bad
smell in the water began com-
ing in from across town on
Sunday.
Both Peronard and Montana
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality officials have said
Glendive’s water treatment
plant was contacted and told
to begin testing and monitor-
ing the water for anything
unusual on Saturday after-
noon after the release of oil
from the pipeline had been
confirmed.
Glendive Mayor Jerry Ji-
mison, who said he was first
notified of the spill at 8 a.m.
Sunday morning by local Di-
saster and Emergency Ser-
vices Coordinator Mary Jo
Gehnert, said his first two
questions to her was whether
there was a threat to the wa-
ter system and if the water
plant had been notified. She
verified that the information
she had showed no threat to
the water and said the water
plant had been informed Sat-
urday.
Jimison said he then called
Public Works Director Jack
Rice, who was out of town,
and Rice confirmed to him
that he had been in contact
with officials from Bridger
Pipeline, LLC and that the
water plant employees were
aware of the situation and
monitoring it.
Asked at Tuesday night’s
public meeting why nothing
was detected in the water pri-
Oil spill recovery a priority
See RECOVERY, page 2
Pallets of water for public distribution are lined up inside of the
Eastern Plains Events Center. Water is being distributed from 10 a.m.
to 8 p.m. daily.
Residents advised not to drink, cook with contaminated water
See WATER, page 2
Jamie Ausk Crisafulli photo
“(The CDC’s) short-
term opinion is that it
does not present an
excess cancer risk,”
Paul Peronard,
EPA on-scene
coordinator
Public expresses
concerns about
late notification