How will rain affect cleanup of Edwardsville oil spill site?
The crews cleaning up crude oil that leaked from an underground pipeline into Cahokia Creek in Edwardsville will have to contend with a new dynamic this week as up to an inch of rain is in the weather forecast.
Marathon Pipe Line, the company that operates the underground pipeline that leaked, has not responded to a request for information about how the predicted rain would affect the cleanup.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said in an email that the cleanup crews are “monitoring anticipated rain for later this week and planning accordingly.”
Kim Biggs, a spokeswoman for the environmental agency, said “extra” work is being done by crews in advance of the rain but she did not have specific details on how the crews would deal with the rainfall. She also noted that a road was allowed to be built in a wetlands to help crews with the cleanup before the rain falls.
The National Weather Service forecast calls for a 100% chance of rain on Friday.
Jayson Gosselin, a meteorologist with the weather service in St. Louis, said the total rainfall could range from ½ inch to 1 inch.
There is a chance for isolated lightning but forecasters do not expect the rain to fall in heavy bursts as part of a thunderstorm that could cause creeks to overflow their banks and flood surrounding areas. Instead, the rain is likely to begin early Friday and fall in steady amounts. The rain could linger in the area into Saturday morning.
The pipeline leak was reported to state officials on Friday morning and the pipeline has been repaired.
Marathon said about 3,900 barrels of oil leaked from the pipeline and that federal officials are conducting an investigation into the cause of the leak, which occurred near the intersection of Illinois 143 and Illinois 159.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has referred “an enforcement action” to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office against Marathon.
The agency did not have a breakdown on how much oil made it to the creek. It also did not have information about how long the oil had been leaking from the pipeline before it was discovered Friday.
Marathon on Tuesday released this information about the equipment either in use or about to be used in the cleanup of the oil from the Cahokia Creek, which runs into the Mississippi River:
21 skimmers: equipment that removes oil from water
44 vacuum trucks: equipment that removes oil and water
3 tanker trucks, 32 tanks and 36 waste containers: to collect oily water and soil for processing and disposal
More than 4,550 feet of boom: to contain the oil on the water.
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 2:15 PM.
