{"id":38520,"date":"2013-06-03T08:26:10","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T07:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/documents-reveal-exxon-mobil-lied-and-downplayed-contamination-from-pipeline-rupture\/38520\/"},"modified":"2013-06-03T08:26:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T07:26:10","slug":"documents-reveal-exxon-mobil-lied-and-downplayed-contamination-from-pipeline-rupture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/documents-reveal-exxon-mobil-lied-and-downplayed-contamination-from-pipeline-rupture\/","title":{"rendered":"Documents Reveal Exxon Mobil Lied and Downplayed Contamination from Pipeline Rupture"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com\/ Zelfit<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

May 28, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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On March 29 Exxon Mobil, the most profitable<\/a>\u00a0company in the world, spilled at least 210,000 gallons of tar sands crude oil<\/a>\u00a0from an underground pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas. The pipeline was carrying tar sands oil from Canada, which flooded family residences in Mayflower in thick tarry crude.<\/a>\u00a0Exxon\u2019s tar sands crude also ran into Lake Conway, which sits about an eighth of a mile from where Exxon\u2019s pipeline ruptured. <\/p>\n

A new batch of documents<\/a>\u00a0received by Greenpeace in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has revealed that Exxon downplayed the extent of the contamination caused by the ruptured pipeline. Records of emails between Arkansas\u2019 DEQ and Exxon depict attempts by Exxon to pass off press releases with factually false information. In a draft press release dated April 8<\/a>, Exxon claims \u201cTests on water samples show Lake Conway and the cove are oil-free.\u201d However, internal emails from April 6\u00a0<\/a>show Exxon knew of significant contamination across Lake Conway<\/a>\u00a0and the cove resulting from the oil spill. <\/p>\n

When the chief of Arkansas Hazardous Waste division called Exxon out on this falsehood<\/a>, Exxon amended the press release. However, they did not amend it to say that oil was in Lake Conway<\/a>\u00a0and contaminant levels in the lake were rising to dangerous levels<\/a>, as they knew to be the case. Instead, they continue to claim that Lake Conway is \u201coil-free.\u201d For the record, Exxon maintains<\/a>\u00a0that the \u201ccove,\u201d a section of Lake Conway that experienced heavy oiling from the spill, is not part of the actual lake. Exxon maintains this distinction in spite of Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel<\/a>\u00a0saying unequivocally \u201cThe cove is part of Lake Conway\u2026The water is all part of one body of water.\u201d Furthermore, Exxon water tests confirmed that levels of Benzene and other contaminants rose throughout the lake<\/a>, not just in the cove area. <\/p>\n

Though Exxon was eventually forced to redact their claim that the cove specifically was \u201coil-free,\u201d the oil and gas giant has yet to publicly address the dangerous levels of Benzene<\/a>\u00a0and other contaminants their own tests have found in the body of Lake Conway. The Environmental Protection Agency and the American Petroleum Institute\u00a0<\/a>don\u2019t agree on everything, but they do agree that the only safe level of Benzene<\/a>, a cancer causing chemical found in oil, is zero. Benzene is added to tar sands oil to make it less viscous and flow more easily through pipelines. Local people have reported fish kills, chemical smells, nausea and headaches<\/a>. Independent water tests have found a host of contaminants present in the lake.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Exxon\u2019s data, 126,000 gallons of tar sands crude oil<\/a>\u00a0from the pipeline spill is still unaccounted for. <\/p>\n

Exxon\u2019s spill emanated from the Pegasus Pipeline, which like the proposed \u00a0Keystone XL pipeline<\/a>, connects the Canadian Tar Sands with refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com\/ Zelfit May 28, 2013 \u00a0| Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. On March 29 Exxon Mobil, the most profitable\u00a0company in the world, spilled at least 210,000 gallons of tar sands crude oil\u00a0from an underground pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas. The pipeline was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}