Billings News

Controlled burn removes oily debris from Yellowstone River

Posted: Nov 8, 2011 1:12 PM by Brittany Wooley- KTVQ News
Updated: Nov 8, 2011 1:25 PM

BILLINGS- Montana DNRC fire crews spent Tuesday morning burning a pile of oiled woody debris in the Yellowstone River as another step in the cleanup of last summer's oil spill.

A crew of three firefighters ignited the small debris pile just upriver from the Duck Creek Bridge using drip torches.

The area manager of the the DNRC Southern Land Office in Billings, Matt Wolcott, said representatives from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, the Montana Environmental Protection Agency, the Montana DNRC, and Exxon decided burning was the best way to clean up this particular debris pile because of safety concerns.

"We don't want to risk people's lives climbing on top of a pile that overhangs the river. If somebody fell inside of there, it has strainers that go down into the water, and there's a high likelihood of somebody drowning, and the other thing we look at is that we don't want to do more harm than good. If we took a heavy excavator into the river bottom and started tearing up the river and the pile, moving stuff around, that could potentially cause more damage than if we just left stuff alone," Wolcott said.

Yellowstone County's Riverstone Health issued the burn permit, and DEQ personelle monitored the burn for air quality.

According to the DEQ, the smoke is not toxic because of the small amount of oil in the debris pile and the speed the fire consumes the remaining volatile chemicals.

Some representatives from Fish, Wildlife, and Parks also stood by to handle and clean any animals that came out of the pile.

The time of the burn was determined based on weather in order to keep smoke out of peoples' residences in the river bottom and out of downtown Billings.

Wolcott said this is the only burn they have planned.