North Dakota agency disregarded policy on spill reporting

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota’s Health Department disregarded its own policy in updating the volume of pipeline spill at a natural gas processing plant.

In July 2015, Oneok Partners reported a 10-gallon (8-imperial gallon) spill of natural gas condensate from a pipeline at a plant near Watford City.

The estimated size of the spill was never updated, even as Oneok updated the state on cleanup. In October, Oneok told the state it had recovered 240,000 gallons (nearly 200,000 imperial gallons) of the liquid gas.

State Environmental Quality Chief Dave Glatt said Thursday that a spill report should have been made public to reflect the severity of the spill.

It’s also unclear whether promised quarterly inspections of the site have been done in the past two years.

Glatt says he is investigating whether the inspections occurred.

James MacPherson, The Associated Press

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