Tar sands crude oil is dangerous stuff

CRASH COURSE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TAR SANDS SPILL (Click here to read more)

4.17.2014 Jill Fitzsimmons
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We know that tar sands crude is different and more dangerous than conventional oil-and that it's more corrosive to pipelines. But the dirty truth about tar sands becomes even more clear when those pipelines give way.
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The residents of Mayflower, Arkansas experienced the risks posed by tar sands pipelines firsthand last March, when Exxon's Pegasus pipeline spilled more than 210,000 gallons of tar sands crude in their community.
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The oil flowed through Mayflower's suburban neighborhoods and into a cove that drains into Lake Conway, a popular local fishing hole.
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The spill, which forced the evacuation of 22 homes, exposed residents to dangerously high levels of benzene - a known carcinogen - and other toxic chemicals used to dilute tar sands crude. Many of those living near the pipeline reported headaches, nausea and respiratory problems following the spill.
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    "The fumes were immediately making me nauseous. I was getting a sore throat and my ears were kind of ringing - your body automatically starts churning." -April, Mayflower resident

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The people of Mayflower have struggled to get answers - from Exxon, local officials, and even their doctors - about the risks to their health in the aftermath of the spill. Oil companies are not required to disclose the chemicals they use to dilute tar sands, so no one can tell them what they were exposed to or how harmful it might be.
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More than one year later, oil remains in the cove and health concerns linger. Many residents still have not been able to return home-despite Exxon's claims that the land has been successfully cleaned up.
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Meanwhile, Exxon is preparing to get parts of the pipeline back up and running.
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Mayflower is not the first community to be devastated by a tar sands spill. In July 2010, an Enbridge pipeline ruptured in Michigan, spilling 840,000 gallons of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River and Talmadge Creek and making hundreds of people sick. It was the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history, and the first time regulators had to deal with a major tar sands spill.
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Unlike conventional oil, bitumen sinks in water, posing unique challenges for clean up crews that they are ill-equipped to handle. Troublingly, the Environmental Protection Agency's incident commander in Kalamazoo admitted that responders were "writing the book" as they went along.
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    "At minimum, we're writing a chapter in the oil spill cleanup book on how to identify submerged oil. We're writing chapters on how it behaves once it does spill (and) how to recover it." - Ralph Dollhopf, EPA Incident Commander

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More than three years later, there is still an estimated 180,000 gallons of bitumen in the Kalamazoo River.