Cleanup of reservation oil spill half done

BROWNING, Mont. (AP) – An environmental cleanup crew is about halfway finished cleaning up an oil spill on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Gabe Renville, owner of Indian Country Environmental Associates in Browning, said most of the surface contamination is cleaned up. The work is expected to cost about $150,000, the Great Falls Tribune (http://bit.ly/pXs0lX ) reported in Monday's editions.

Up to 840 gallons of crude spilled from a broken line at an oil field FX Energy Inc. operates before the company fixed it June. But the company didn't report the spill. Oil spread almost a mile down a ravine and into Cut Bank Creek before a landowner reported it on July 12.

Tribal oil and gas director Grinnell Day Chief says the tribe plans to ask oil operators to replace the flow lines, which transport oil from wells to storage facilities.

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Information from: Great Falls Tribune, http://www.greatfallstribune.com