On Tuesday, November 8, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation burned a mass of oily, woody debris that lingered after the oil spill that enveloped the region last summer, KTVQ News reports.
According to the news source, three firefighters and a slew of officials from environmental agencies were on hand to ensure the burn went safely and smoothly.
“We don’t want to do more harm than good,” Matt Wolcott, area manager of the the DNRC Southern Land Office in Billings, told the news source. “If we took a heavy excavator into the river bottom and started tearing up the river and the pile, moving stuff around, that could potentially cause more damage than if we just left stuff alone.”
According to the Billings Gazette, the burn lasted throughout the day, with prevailing winds keeping the smoke out of the Billings area.
Last week, Exxon Mobil stated that cleanup costs from the 42,000-gallon spill have reached $135 million, while landowners have presented lawsuits in the tens of millions of dollars.
The damage from oil spills like the Yellowstone River disaster can be allayed with several products from Impact Absorbents, such as the XSORB Oil Select Sock, among other items.
