More than 66 tons of the black, gooey stuff have been removed from the river since the June 24 accident, officials said. Most of the spilled material — a binder for asphalt that sticks to river rocks and gets harder to handle as it warms _ is expected to get left behind.Cleanup crews working this week on an island near the town of Laurel pulled long, taffy-like pieces of the asphalt from among the river rocks.
Tar mats and tar balls from the spill have been found at more than three dozen locations, according to government records. That includes where the river passes through Montana’s largest city, Billings. The farthest site downstream is near Pompey’s Pillar National Monument.The company predicted immediately after the spill that the petroleum products would “solidify rapidly.” Authorities now say the material could take much longer to harden.
The Environmental Protection Agency previously estimated up to 250 tons of oil product entered the river from six asphalt binder tank cars. Agency spokesperson Beth Archer said Friday that officials still were determining a final figure. Garland did not respond to questions about the size of the spill.Article content
“It’s like a fouling issue,” said Graham. “Once it gets on you, your body temperature will warm it up and it gets sticky. You need to use baby oil to get it off. It’s very difficult to get off with soap and water.”A smaller amount of molten sulfur spilled from three tank cars. It hardened after being released and very little has been found on the river, according to Archer and others involved in the cleanup.
The derailment marked the Yellowstone’s third large petroleum spill in recent years, following crude oil pipeline breaks in 2011 and 2015. The Yellowstone has a shifting channel and its river bed can become severely scoured during flooding such as the region experienced last year.
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