On April 30th, a CSX train transporting oil derailed outside of Lynchburg, Virginia, sending flames shooting 80 feet into the air and coating the town in a thick, black smoke. It wasn’t just any oil that the train was carrying. It was Bakken oil from the Bakken fields of North Dakota and Montana. Although crude oil spills are routine, and rarely destructive, the four instances of Bakken oil spills that have occurred in the past year have caused deaths, injuries and evacuations across North America.
Chief Scientist of Water Defense Scott Smith tells us that it is not the Bakken oil itself, but rather how the oil is extracted, or, more accurately, fracked, that creates this explosive and dangerous cocktail.
