Floods, oil contamination force Oklahoma evacuation
Heavy rains caused wide-scale flooding in northeastern Oklahoma — with spilled crude from breahced refinery adding to the misery of people, wildlife
When it rains, it pours. Hundreds of residents who fled their northeastern Oklahoma homes on Tuesday ran away not only from onrushing flood waters, but also from a heavy oil slick carried by the flood. An estimated 42,000 gallons of thick crude oil which spilled from a Kansas refinery on Sunday floated with mud and debris down the Verdigris River, coating everything it touched with a slimy, smelly layer of goo. The slick was not expected to affect water supply intakes well below the surface of Oklahoma’s Oologah Lake, about thirty miles northeast of Tulsa, said Skylar McElhaney, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
Evacuated residents are being advised to wear protective coverings when they return home to avoid touching the oil, which joins other causes of misery for thousands affected by flooding in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
The refinery tank that overflowed and spilled the oil down the Verdigris has been secured, operator Coffeyville Resources said Tuesday. Environmental officials were planning to conduct water sampling where the oil slick made its way. “As of right now, we don’t have a full assessment of the extent of the contamination,” said Dave Bary, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency in Dallas. “Quite a bit of it remains on the surface and is visible.”
