Oil spill continues to contaminate BLM land

VERNAL — The amount of public land contaminated by a oil pipeline break in January has grown due to delays in approving a cleanup plan and warmer-than-normal temperatures, according to a state environmental official.

Scott D. Hacking, a district engineer for the state Division of Environmental Quality, said temporary dams put in by cleanup crews washed out last week and oil-tainted water traveled at least 1 1/2 miles from the original spill site down a natural drainage.

"Very small amounts (of oil) have gone down the wash," Hacking said. "Visually you can see it, but it's not a lot."

On Jan. 13, an underground pipeline operated by Chevron Pipeline Co. ruptured, spilling an estimated 59,000 gallons onto U.S. Bureau of Land Management land 33 miles south of Vernal and one mile west of Deseret Power's Bonanza Power Plant.

The damaged 3-inch line is part of the Salt Lake Crude System that feeds into the refineries on the Wasatch Front. The break was detected when sensors in the pipeline recorded a drop in pressure. The line was immediately shut down, according to a Chevron Pipeline spokesman.

Hacking said state and federal officials believed they had time to get a cleanup plan in place and begin remediation because frigid temperatures in the Uintah Basin would keep the oil from spreading. But a warm spell in late January that brought rain to the area caused the temporary dams to "blow out" before a final plan was in place, Hacking said.

"There wasn't a mass pool of oil (at the time of the breach) like there was initially," said Jerry Kenczka with the BLM.

Kenczka, assistant field manager for lands and minerals for the bureau's Vernal field office, said the remediation firm hired by Chevron Pipeline had cleaned up as much of the standing oil as possible immediately after the spill. It submitted one plan for a "final cleanup," Kenczka said, but the BLM had questions about the plan. A second plan was submitted Friday and approved.

"They're going to construct what they call a 'bio-cell' in the same area where the spill occurred," Kenczka said. "They should be starting that toward the end of this week, but their first order of business this week was to put in a new containment structure."

The contaminated soil will be excavated and piled into a massive mound, according to the plan. It will then be land farmed, a process that involves introducing fertilizers and micro organisms into the soil and then aerating it regularly to promote degradation of the contaminants.