Report: 165,000 Gallons of Oil Spilled into an Illinois Creek
I'm having a hard time getting my mind around exactly how much 165,000 gallons of anything would be. Sadly, that's the amount of oil that was recently spilled into an Illinois creek based on multiple reports.
I first saw this reported on Yahoo News. It appears to be based off of a Fox 2 St. Louis report on an oil spill into Cahokia Creek near Edwardsville from Marathon Petroleum.
Based on their report, crews were working overnight trying to remedy the crude oil that leaked into Cahokia Creek, but that's easier said than done. Marathon Pipeline and other emergency agencies indicate the spill is contained, but now there's cleanup to be done.
According to reports, this incident is now being dealt with by the Illinois Attorney General who has released a statement indicating Marathon allegedly violated EPA regulations and they are now investigating possible damage to the surrounding environment near Edwardsville.
According to NOAA's website, one of the cleanup methods for oil spills like this one in Illinois is using dispersion involving chemicals designed to break up the oil into smaller molecules. No word from authorities at this point on exactly how much environmental damage might have been done or how long it will take to cleanup.