Good Luck, Arkansas

Activists with the group Tar Sands Blockade published new videos on Sunday showing oil from the Arkansas pipeline rupture purportedly diverted from a residential neighborhood into a wetland area to keep it out sight and, most importantly, out of the media.

  Raw Story

Well, that would be UNHEARD of.

Activists also interviewed a local resident who claimed the oil has continued “flowing” into Lake Conway since the spill happened.

Which is exactly what they were afraid of, although they ought to have some concerns for their groundwater, if they don’t. And since we get media stories, we only know what the media distributors are worried about.

A letter sent by ExxonMobil to residents of Mayflower on March 31 claims the oil did not reach Lake Conway.

It WOULD claim that, wouldn’t it?

While it’s not clear if the oil was intentionally moved into the wetland, the company says it is cleaning pavement with power washing devices, which could cause some of the oil to be pushed off neighborhood streets and into other areas.

Could? COULD? SOME of the oil? Are we to believe that power washers atomize the oil? Make it disappear like a blast from some atomic incinerator? Where the hell do people think that oil IS going?

In two separate videos, nearby residents say they’ve been made sick by the spill, which has tremendously affected their air quality.

[...]

“I don’t have allergies,” a man who lives on Lake Conway told tar sands activists. “But now my sinuses are bothering me. My throat’s bothering me. My eyes water constantly. But they [Exxon] act like nothing’s wrong. They don’t have to live here, we do. And we’re not moving just because of them.”

Well, sir. You may HAVE to. Of course, by the time all the oil companies get through polluting all the water resources, I’m not sure where you’re going to go.

This footage has largely remained out of the media due to the lockdown that’s descended upon Mayflower nearly a week since the spill. Reporters touring the damage with Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel were allegedly turned away by Exxon workers. One journalist, InsideClimate News’s Susan White, was even threatened with arrest when she asked a question of Exxon’s “public affairs” desk inside the spill cleanup command center. The company has also secured a no-fly zone over the spill area.

One thing you can say for the oil companies – they’ve learned how to handle an oil spill.

Video of Lake Conway’s wetlands shows thousands of what Exxon called “absorbent pads” — which appear to be nothing more than paper towels — littering the blackened landscape as thick, soupy crude bubbles across the water’s surface. The company insists that air quality in the affected region is being measured by the Environmental Protection Agency, and that tests show “levels that are either non-detect or that are below any necessary action levels.” Exxon also says that the area’s drinking water remains unaffected.

Sure.

A phone number given by Exxon to reach the company’s “downstream media relations” team did not appear to be correct, and a spokesperson was not available for comment.