Oil Spill Safety | Video

Eric Steltzer | 8/10/2011

Safety is always important in Oil Country. But with all the activity there are bound to be some accidents. It’s why Enbridge, a pipeline company that transports oil from Williston to Minnesota, is staging an oil spill. They`re making sure their crews are prepared for the worst.

You can never be too safe. That’s the message that Enbridge is giving workers. The company wants to make sure they know what to do in case one of their pipes get scraped and springs a leak.

"Hypothetically we`ll inform everybody down our chain of command. We`ll deploy booms like we`re doing today, which is basically releasing product in the water and so that when oil comes down the boom we`ll catch it, bring it up into the tank, and that tank will take the oil out of the system" says Community Relations Advisor Katie Haarsager.

If there`s a spill, an emergency response team goes to the site and drops two types of booms; a hard boom to deflect oil into water separators, and a second boom to deflect water and absorb oil.

"Anything that is floating we can obviously gather up to 99 plus percent. Then we utilize the absorbent boom to absorb the rest of the oil to polish it off and collect as much oil as possible" says Minot Area Coordinator Jim Tate.

Enbridge workers say each spill is different, which is why their workers attend these simulations in different seasons, three times a year.

"Safety is our top priority, especially when you`re dealing with hazardous liquids. We want to make sure we`re doing everything in our power to ensure the public is safe, the land is safe, and everything we do with our pipes is up to those standards" says Haarsager.

In order to prevent an actual accident from happening, Katie says to call 8-11 before you dig.

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