The Oil Boom Produces Another Spill

In late September more than 865,000 gallons of Bakken oil (see map [pdf]) spewed from a pipeline onto a North Dakota farmer’s wheat fields.

The oil boom is alive and kicking in North Dakota where fracking — the technique of injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure deep into the Earth to liberate the fuel trapped inside rock formations — has opened up huge new reserves of oil [pdf] trapped in shale. Apparently oil spills are also kicking up a bit of a kerfuffle in North Dakota.

In August, TheGreenGrok called attention to the fact that oil spills are probably more common than you might think and may be a lot closer to home than

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