The spill estimate for the Belle Fourche line that leaked into a small tributary of the Little Missouri last year has been revised upwards, as the company continues to investigate and uncover the causes of the Dec. 5 leak.
The company’s new estimate puts the spill at 12,615 barrels, or 529,839 gallons of oil, putting it among the state’s largest active water spills, according to North Dakota’s spill investigation program manager Bill Suess. The state’s largest spill was an 840,000 gallon spill in a wheat field near Tioga in 2013. That spill is still being cleaned up, although Suess said it looks like that could be completed this year.


“That would explain why the leak detection didn’t work,” Suess said. “(The electronic monitoring system) is gonna go take a baseline, but if the baseline is a leak, it’s not going to catch it.”


North Dakota Department of Health has issued a notice of violation for the spill because it escaped containment and it affected water


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