Pipeline break spills 45,000 gallons of diesel in Wyoming
By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A diesel pipeline in Wyoming owned by a company that's being sued by federal prosecutors over previous spills in two other states cracked open and released more than 45,000 gallons (205,000 liters) of fuel, state regulators and a company representative disclosed Friday.
Cleanup work is ongoing from the spill that was discovered by the pipeline's operator on July 27, said Joe Hunter, Emergency Response Coordinator with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. The fuel spilled into sandy soil on private ranchland near the small community of Sussex in eastern Wyoming and did not spread very far, he said.
Contaminated soil was being excavated and placed into a temporary staging area, and it will be spread onto a nearby dirt road where the fuel is expected to largely evaporate, Hunter said.
The line is operated by Bridger Pipeline, a subsidiary of Casper-based True companies, according to an accident report submitted to the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center.
The company initially reported only 420 gallons (1,590 liters) had spilled, but later revised its estimate to 45,150 gallons (205,250 liters), according to a National Response Center database.
Bridger Pipeline spokesperson Bill Salvin said the initial figure was based on what company personnel saw on the ground and reported immediately. The volume estimate increased as the site was excavated, he said.
True and its subsidiaries have a long history of spills.In May, federal prosecutors in Montana alleged that representatives of Bridger Pipeline had concealed from regulators problems with a pipeline that broke beneath the Yellowstone River near the city of Glendive in 2015. The break spewed more than 50,000 gallons (240,000 liters) of crude into the river andfouled Glendive's drinking water supply.
Related video: Feds suing company responsible for oil pipeline spill near Glendive
In North Dakota, federal prosecutors and the state Attorney General's Office are pursuing parallel claims of environmental violations against a second True companies subsidiary responsible for a 2016 spill that released more than 600,000 gallons (2.7 million liters) of crude, contaminating the Little Missouri River and a tributary.
Representatives of the companies have denied violating pollution laws and rejected claims that problems with the Montana line were concealed from federal regulators.
The Wyoming spill was caused by a crack at a weld in the line, said Hunter, who did not know how long it was leaking before being discovered. The spilled fuel did not appear to reach any waterways and no enforcement actions for environmental violations were planned, he said.
“I'm not saying there wouldn't be any down the road but for right now there won't be" any enforcement actions by the state, Hunter said. “It's an older pipeline and it's one of those things that happen.”
The 6-inch (15 centimeter) diameter steel line was installed in 1968 by the original owner and later acquired by Bridger Pipeline, Salvin said. It was last inspected in 2019, using a device that travels inside the pipe looking for flaws, and no problems were detected, he said.
“We're focused on minimizing the environmental impact and we're going to replace the soil and restore the land as close as possible to its original condition,” Salvin said.
Kenneth Clarkson with the Pipeline Safety Trust, a Bellingham, Washington-based group that advocates for safer pipelines, said a thorough investigation into the spill's cause needs to conducted.
“It’s frustrating to hear of another spill by Bridger Pipeline LLC," Clarkson said. "This spill of 45,000-plus gallons of diesel into rural Wyoming negatively impacts the environment, wildlife, and surrounding communities.”
Violations of pipeline safety regulations would be handled separately and fall under jurisdiction of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Salvin said the agency has been notified about the spill, but officials did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.
Bridger last year reached a $2 million settlement with the federal government and Montana over damages from the Yellowstone River spill. The company was previously fined $1 million in the case by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
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hief says Chauvin ‘in no way, shape or form’ followed training as key witnesses form striking bookends to week
The trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former police officer charged with murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis last May, completed its 10th day of witness testimony on Friday.
The second week was very different from the first but no less dramatic. The opening days of prosecution witness testimony last week focused on viral, harrowing bystander video and newly released footage of Floyd’s agonizing death, then on the accounts of some traumatized bystanders.
In the second week, two key witnesses formed striking bookends. The Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo, testified against Chauvin on Monday. On Friday Andrew Baker, who performed the autopsy, took the stand. He classified the death as a homicide, which he said in a medical context meant that it resulted from the actions of a person or persons but did not imply any criminal action.
Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after Chauvin, 45, kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes.
Police chief says Chauvin violated department policy, training and ethics
Arradondo, the first Black police chief in Minneapolis , told the jury he “vehemently disagreed” that there had been any justification for Chauvin to restrain Floyd the way he had.
Chauvin (who was fired the day after Floyd’s death) breached regulations, in “no way, shape or form” followed training and showed a disregard for police principles to respect “the sanctity of life”, the chief said.
Cracks in the ‘blue wall of silence’
Arradondo was the biggest name in a succession of serving officers who testified against Chauvin, their former colleague of 19 years.
The civil rights lawyer David Henderson told MSNBC he had never seen multiple police officers cross the “blue line” and testify against one of their own, as the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder related it.
He added: “I think George Floyd is going to continue to transform the world … There’s going to be a clear line drawn between how these cases are tried prior to George Floyd’s death … and after.”
But “at the same time”, he said, “police problems are systemic”.
The CNN commentator Van Jones described Arradondo’s transparent approach as “what we want from modern policing … This is the professionalism people have been begging for for 20 to 30 years.”
Experts cite George Floyd’s inability to breathe under Chauvin’s pressure
Martin Tobin, a pulmonary and critical care specialist for 40 years, told the jury on Thursday Floyd had been caught in a “vice” between Chauvin and the street.
“Mr Floyd died from a low level of oxygen and this caused damage to his brain,” he said, adding that in turn caused Floyd’s heart to stop. Tobin said: “A healthy person subjected to what Mr Floyd was subjected to would have died.”
A challenging Friday for the prosecution
The forensic pathologist Lindsey Thomas testified: “The activities of the law enforcement officers resulted in Mr Floyd’s death.”
The defense lawyer Eric Nelson wants to show that Floyd died of heart problems combined with drug use. Thomas agreed that Floyd’s underlying heart condition “was a potential cause of death”.
The week concluded with testimony from Baker, the Hennepin county chief medical examiner whom Thomas helped to train. He stopped short of backing expert witnesses who testified that Floyd was asphyxiated by Chauvin’s knee.
Baker told the court the officer pinning the man to the ground was “just more than Mr Floyd could take” by making it hard for him to breathe, causing stress hormones that worsened a heart condition and led to his death.
It was a subtle point, but the defense will look to exploit any sense of doubt.
Police in Windsor, Virginia, held Caron Nazario, left, at gunpoint and pepper-sprayed him during a routine traffic stop last December, according to a new federal lawsuit. (photo: Twitter)
olice in Windsor, Virginia, pulled their guns on a Black and Latino man immediately after pulling him over at a gas station for a traffic stop, according to body camera footage of the December 2020 incident. Second Lieutenant Caron Nazario, a member of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was still wearing his full uniform en route home from work in his Chevy Tahoe when he asked, “I’m serving this country, and this is how I’m treated?” The officers later pepper-sprayed him, kneed him in the legs, handcuffed him, and threatened to bring charges against him if he complained about their conduct, according to the footage and Nazario’s lawsuit.
He has sued the officers, accusing them of racially profiling him. They say they pulled him over because he was driving without a license plate, though he had temporary plates taped to his window. They said they used force because he would not exit the vehicle. When Nazario said he was afraid to exit the vehicle, an officer responded, “Yeah, you should be,” according to video of the encounter.
Soldiers cross a bridge in Shan state in 2019 after it was attacked by ethnic rebel groups. (photo: AFP)
10 Myanmar Police Killed in Attack by Ethnic Armies: Reports Al Jazeera Excerpt: "An alliance of ethnic armies in Myanmar that has opposed the general's crackdown on anti-coup protests attacked a police station in the east on Saturday and killed at least 10 policemen, local media said."
Fighters from an alliance of rebel groups reportedly attack a police station in a new escalation after the military coup.
The police station at Naungmon in Shan state was attacked early in the morning by fighters from an alliance that includes the Arakan Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, media reported.
Shan News said at least 10 policemen were killed, while the Shwe Phee Myay news outlet put the death toll at 14.
A spokesman for the military did not return calls asking for comment.
Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from neighbouring Thailand, noted the ethnic armies are some of the oldest in the world, having battled central government forces for decades.
“Since the coup, there has been a lot of talk about armed groups operating together but we have not actually seen it before. Today it’s claimed three acted together, joined forces, attacked this outpost manned by Myanmar police, killing a number of policemen,” said Cheng, adding the assault occurred over two hours early on Saturday.
More than 600 people have been killed by the military in the crackdown on protests against the February 1 coup, according to a monitoring group. As violence has escalated, about a dozen armed groups have condemned the coup-makers as illegitimate and pledged to stand with the protesters.
Civilian lawmakers, most of whom are in hiding after their removal, have announced plans to form a “national unity government” – with key roles for ethnic leaders – and are holding online talks about joint resistance to the generals.
Dozens of bodies
Meanwhile, reports from Myanmar say dozens of people may have been killed in a military assault on anti-coup protesters in the city of Bago. About 60 people may have died in the clashes in the city, about 60km (32 miles) northeast of Yangon, according to Radio Free Asia citing witnesses.
News site Myanmar Now cited a protest leader as saying dozens of bodies had been brought inside a pagoda compound where the military was based. Witnesses cited by both media outlets reported hours of gunfire that started early on Friday.
Protests against the February coup continued on Saturday in Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Sagaing, Myeik and many other cities.
The military crackdown has also included reports of protesters being tortured in detention and harsh sentences.
The military issued death sentences on 19 people from Yangon’s North Okkalapa township on Friday. They were charged with beating an army captain, according to Radio Free Asia.
The military coup dismissed the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest.
Pump jacks draw crude oil from the Inglewood Oil Field near Los Angeles, California, on March 9, 2020. (photo: David McNew/Getty)
Pipeline Spills Over 1,600 Gallons of Oil Near Los Angeles Communities Emily Denny, EcoWatch Denny writes: "More than 1,600 gallons of oil have spilled in the Inglewood Oil Field - the largest urban oil field in the country, where more than a million people live within five miles of its boundaries."
ore than 1,600 gallons of oil have spilled in the Inglewood Oil Field — the largest urban oil field in the country, where more than a million people live within five miles of its boundaries, the Sierra Club wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
The spill was caused by a human error when a valve was left open, the Los Angeles Times reported. It was also not the field's first spill. Past spills at the Inglewood Oil Field, located in Culver City and Los Angeles County, have occurred in 2019, 2018, 2010, 2006 and 2005, exposing residents in the area to toxins and carcinogens, the Sierra Club added.
After a history of community organizing, Tuesday's spill arms activists with further momentum to fight against this major public health and environmental crisis in California's largest county.
"Yesterday's oil spill is a deadly reminder that the environmental racism that's shaped and harmed Black, Indigenous, and people of color continues to put our health at risk," Martha Dina Argüello, of the STAND-LA Coalition, an environmental justice coalition, and Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, said in a Sierra Club statement.
Of the people living in the area, 52 percent are Black, which is a much higher percentage than the countywide eight percent, the Sierra Club reported. The oil field is also located alongside homes and schools, putting families at risk for health outcomes from air pollution like lung disease, leukemia, lymphoma, lung cancer and asthma. In Baldwin Hills, asthma related ER visits are 4.4 times higher than the Los Angeles County average.
"A pattern of oil spills and the daily and 'authorized' toxic emissions both demonstrate that oil extraction is [an] inherently dangerous practice that has no place in our region. We look forward to working with Los Angeles County to take immediate steps to phase out oil and gas production," Argüello added, according to the Sierra Club.
Last fall, Culver City approved a resolution to take initial steps to phase out oil in the area, the NRDC wrote in a statement. Similar actions are also occurring citywide in Los Angeles.
In December, the Los Angeles City Council's Energy, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice Committee voted unanimously to pass a motion to begin a citywide phase-out of oil drilling, the NRDC wrote in a statement. "We're not over the finish line, but we're closer than ever," Argüello added, according to the Courthouse News Service.
Currently, there are 1,071 active oil wells in the city — 759 of which are located less than 1,500 feet from homes, schools, churches and hospitals, STAND-LA, which has been leading the fight against oil in the city of Los Angeles, wrote.
Although no injuries were reported at the Inglewood oil spill on Tuesday, environmental groups have expressed concerns about toxins released in the air from the spill that could harm nearby communities, the Los Angeles Times reported, adding to the often unknown and unreported health impacts of oil spills.
"What's terrifying about health dangers like this is that the average person living nearby rarely has any way of knowing it even happened," Ethan Senser, Southern California Organizer with Food & Water Watch told the Sierra Club. "This is an ongoing crisis we can't keep sweeping under the rug - it's time that the County commits to partnering with frontline communities and supporting the real solutions they are putting forward."
hief says Chauvin ‘in no way, shape or form’ followed training as key witnesses form striking bookends to week
olice in Windsor, Virginia, pulled their guns on a Black and Latino man immediately after pulling him over at a gas station for a traffic stop, according to body camera footage of the December 2020 incident. Second Lieutenant Caron Nazario, a member of the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was still wearing his full uniform en route home from work in his Chevy Tahoe when he asked, “I’m serving this country, and this is how I’m treated?” The officers later pepper-sprayed him, kneed him in the legs, handcuffed him, and threatened to bring charges against him if he complained about their conduct, according to the footage and Nazario’s lawsuit.
ore than 1,600 gallons of oil have spilled in the Inglewood Oil Field — the largest urban oil field in the country, where more than a million people live within five miles of its boundaries, the Sierra Club 
