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Mayflower Subdivision Still Vacant 2 Months After Exxon Tar Sands Spill
Two months after Exxon's Pegasus pipeline ruptured and spewed tar sands oil into an Arkansas subdivision and nearby lake...life in Mayflower is still far from back to normal.
Arkansas Matters:
"You can see it's just nasty. It was never like this before," said Robin Lang as she pointed to green, turbid water in her backyard.
Two days before the two-month anniversary of the Mayflower oil spill, folks like Lang who live on "The Cove" section of Lake Conway are still wondering when life will be back to normal.
Oil collecting boom stretches across her lake view, and an airboat patrols daily collecting remnants of the spill.
Lang says wildlife is nowhere to be seen.
"It's like a desert area," she said. "Everything just left. I mean what would want to be in this water?"
While Exxon paid the residents of The Cove $2,500 each for their troubles, there is no agreement to protect their property values. There is also no one cleaning the properties in The Cove as they are in Northwoods subdivision.
But life in Northwoods subdivision still hasn't returned to normal. All 22 of the homes evacuated on March 29th still remain vacant. Heavy equipment is still present, yards are still torn up. Seven of the homes were so deeply impacted by the spill that there are no plans to return those families to their homes, Exxon is instead looking for "long-term solutions" for them.
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