U.S. Water News Online
EVANSTON, Wyo. -- Not unlike the Great Chicago Fire of
the 19th century, the kick of a cow apparently has caused one
of Wyoming's biggest pollution incidents. State officials have
ordered Questar Pipeline Co. of Evanston to develop a cleanup
plan for a spill of about 8,250 gallons of methanol at a remote
well location near the southwest corner of the state.
The leak, which occurred in 1994 and wasn't discovered for
weeks,
occurred when cattle grazing near the storage tank pipeline
"rubbed
up along the nipple to the pipeline tanks and broke it off,"
said Vicki Vance in the Solid and Hazardous Waste Division of
the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. The leak
contaminated
soils and groundwater at the pipeline company's No. 12 site,
Vance
said. Currently, she pointed out, the cleanup involves pumping
and treating the contaminated groundwater.
As part of the consent order for the cleanup, Questar also
plans
to use a bioreactor to achieve methanol concentrations in the
groundwater of 5 parts per million or less.
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