Oil spill in North Dakota

Article: http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/general/nd-farmer-finds-oil-spill-while-harvesting-wheat/nbLZY/

Level: National

Category: Health/environmental

Concerning: Massive oil spill

This is important because oil spills have serious environmental ramifications and the news of this spill was hidden for 11 days.

My Views:

20,000 barrels of crude oil were spilled onto a field in North Dakota, enough oil to be "inches high off the ground" and "spewing and bubbling". The largest recorded spill in North Dakota was not reported to the public, until 11 days after it happened. The public, especially the local community of this misfortune deserve to know about environmental disasters in a timely fashion. The Environmental agency of North Dakota reported that there was no environmental or wildlife damage and it was only "a small spill" and that was why they did not inform the public sooner, but how can an oil spill the size of seven football fields seeping into the ground not be detrimental to the environment? The farmer who initially found the spill on his property will have to wait years at least to be able to grow edible crops on that ground, so the ground will definitely be affected. The prevalence of these oil spills is too frequent, especially on how large of a scale they seem to be on. There needs to be more strict policies and regulations on oil companies, especially while drilling. The safety regulations need to be made more intense so that spills can not keep ruining the environment.