Major Oil Spill in Arkansas: Has ExxonMobil Lost Control of More than Just its Tar Sands Oil?

The first pictures of the pipeline gash came from the law firm suing ExxonMobil on behalf of those hurt by the spill.  The Duncan Firm of Little Rock posted four pictures on its [4]Facebook page[4] April 11, following an onsite inspection the previous day.

That was the same day that ExxonMobil complied with a subpoena and delivered 12,587 pages of documents, including hundreds of plans and blueprints to Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel.  Commenting on the 22 foot long, 2 inch wide, smooth split in the pipeline, McDaniel said, “The pipeline rupture is substantially larger than many of us initially thought.”

Also that day, April 10, the Huffington Post ran a detailed story about widespread health complaints among people living near the pipeline and as much as a mile or more away.  The next day, the Arkansas Times had a much [5]longer story[5] about the town with the headline: “Will Mayflower ever be the same after the Exxon spill?”  Not surprisingly, there was no one who thought so.

Arkansas Paper Hears Ticking Time Bomb 

The Arkansas Times story notes in passing “the still-ticking time bomb on the shores of Central Arkansas’s primary water source, Lake Maumelle, where the Pegasus pipeline comes within 600 feet of the shoreline.”

And the Duncan firm is reaching out to people along for full 300-mile length of the pipeline in Arkansas, suggesting on Facebook: “If this pipeline runs through your property you may have a claim for damages.”

None of this information came from ExxonMobil.  Late on April 11, the ExxonMobil website’s freshest news was a Unified Command press release from April 10, featuring the usual good news about the air, water, fish, and residents.

April 10 looks like the day ExxonMobil lost [2]control of the story[2], at least for the moment.

Despite sketchy mainstream media coverage outside Arkansas, enforced by a county sheriff’s department obedient to ExxonMobil directives, the increased [3]flow of news[3] from the Duncan Firm, and Attorney General, and a local population losing patience with – and more importantly trust in ExxonMobil’s promises will be much harder for America’s most profitable corporation to control.

And Why Would Anyone Distrust ExxonMobil? 

Some days ago, ExxonMobil gave four families well-publicized permission to return to their homes.  The families chose not to return, because the Arkansas Dept. of Health suggested they wait till air quality tests confirmed it was safe.

ExxonMobil reported April 10 that “Fish in the main body of Lake Conway have not been affected.”  The press release acknowledges obliquely that a cove that is part of the lake already has tar sands oil in it, but tries to reassure the reader that that’s as far as the diluted bitumen and its unknown, multiple chemical components will go .

One Mayflower resident who lives near that cove went to an ExxonMobil community meeting April 7 and heard an ExxonMobil panel of four guarantee that there was no tar sands oil in the cove.  After the meeting, he went home and saw tar sands oil in the cove.

The Duncan Firm is pursuing the class action suit against ExxonMobil in federal court.  On local TV April 9, Duncan Firm founder, attorney Philip Duncan said he expected the class of Arkansans harmed by ExxonMobil to grow into the hundreds.

Notes

[1] http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/16841-tar-sands-oil-arkansas 

[2] http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/16855-the-press-and-public-are-contained

[3] http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/16890-cleanup-workers-collect-oil-faster-than-media-collect-information 

[4] https://www.facebook.com/pages/Duncan-Firm/118456371523836 

[5]  http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/will-mayflower-ever-be-the-same-after-the-exxon-spill/Content?oid=2797633  

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Major Oil Spill in Arkansas: Has ExxonMobil Lost Control of More than Just its Tar Sands Oil?

Exxon’s Unfriendly Skies: Why Does Exxon Control the No-Fly Zone Over Arkansas Tar Sands Spill?

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has had a “no fly zone” in place in Mayflower, Arkansas since April 1 at 2:12 PM and will be in place “until further notice,” according to the FAA website and it’s being overseen by Exxon Mobil itself.

Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

by Steve Horn
DesmogBlog
April 4, 2013

In other words, any media or independent observers who want to witness the tar sands spill disaster have to ask Exxon’s permission.

Mayflower is the site of the recent major March 29 ExxonMobil Pegagus tar sands pipeline spill, which belched out an estimated 5,000 barrels of tar sands diluted bitumen (“dilbit”) into the small town’s neighborhoods, causing the evacuation of 22 homes. 

The rules of engagement for the no fly zone dictate that no aircraft can fly within 1,000 feet of the ground in the five-mile radius surrounding the ExxonMobil Pegasus tar sands pipeline spill. The area located within this radius includes the nearby Pine Village Airport.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette revealed that the FAA site noted earlier today that “only relief aircraft operations under direction of Tom Suhrhoff” were allowed within the designated no fly zone. 

Suhrhoff is not an FAA employee: he works for ExxonMobil as an “Aviation Advisor“ and formerly worked as a U.S. Army pilot for 24 years, according to his LinkedIn page. 

Lynn Lunsford, an FAA spokesman, told Dow Jones a no fly zone was issued because ”at least one” helicopter was needed to move clean-up crews around, as well as to spot oil that can’t be seen from the ground.

“The pilot of the helicopter needs to be able to move about freely without potential conflicts with other aircraft,” he told Dow Jones.

This also means press is prohibited from the area, though Lunsford told Dow Jones that the FAA “is in the process of amending the restriction to allow news media aircraft into the area.”

When will news media be allowed back into the designated no fly zone area? That portion of the question was either never asked by Dow Jones or never answered by Lunsford. 

This comes one day after Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said his office would be opening an investigation into the incident. It also comes one day after federal pipeline regulators barred ExxonMobil from restarting the pipeline until it receives close inspection.

It appears the Pegasus spill is becoming the BP Gulf oil disaster take two, with the responsible polluter running every step of the show. 

Here is a 5-minute clip of video taken (presumably before the no-fly-zone order took effect) by videojournalist Adam Randall over Mayfield on April 1, including footage of the impacted neighborhoods and surrounding areas (H/T LeeCamp)

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Exxon’s Unfriendly Skies: Why Does Exxon Control the No-Fly Zone Over Arkansas Tar Sands Spill?