A number of homes in Mayflower, Arkansas, were evacuated after pipeline carrying crude oil developed a leak at about 3.00 pm local time (about 8.00 pm GMT) on Friday 29 March 2013. The oil flowed across gardens and residential streets as well as entering a stream and drainage ditches running under Highway 365 and Interstate 40. The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management have been building earth dams to prevent the oil from entering nearby Lake Conway. The pipeline, which is owned by Exxon Mobil and carries crude oil from Canada to Texas, has been shut down.
Oil running down a residential street and across gardens in Mayflower, Arkansas, on Friday 29 March 2013. Fox 16.
The cause of the link has yet to be determined; the pipeline was buried and no excavation work was being carried out at the time when the rupture occurred. The pipeline crosses several waterways in the area and could potentially present a threat to water supplies if it developed a leak in the wrong place. The incident is being investigated by Exxon Mobil.
The location of the 29 March pipeline leak. Google Maps.
See also Exxon Mobil fined $1.7 million for Yellowstone River oil spill, Willard Bay State Park, Utah, closed by oil spill, Gas pipeline explosion in West Virginia and Oil spill on the Red Deer River.
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