More than 240 miles of The Yellowstone River were affected by the spill
Fortunately for anglers, and small consolation for other folks,
the spill did not affect trout fishing in its blue ribbon strecth
Did ExxonMobil understimate their initial claim of how much oil spilled into the Yellowstone River when a pipe ruptured back on July 1? They may well have, since they first claimed they stopped the leak in minutes, but regulators have since learned it actually took an hour to stop the leak. This according to an insightful update on the American Rivers newsroom blog by Scott Bosse.
Bosse writes:
If you read ExxonMobil’s news releases, you would be led to believe that the situation is under control and clean-up crews will scrub the riverbanks and streamside vegetation of every drop of oil. You’ll hear how they have hired 600 clean-up workers, contracted with 39 oil recovery boats, and deployed 33,000 feet of boom and 160,000 absorbent pads.
The reality is clean-up crews have recovered less than one percent of the spilled oil, and that number is unlikely to increase.
Read the rest of the Americn Rivers update here.