Company fined $35M in North Dakota drilling wastewater spill

By DAVE KOLPACK
Associated Press

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — An oil company operating in western North Dakota that waited more than five months to report a pipeline spill that discharged more than 29 million gallons of wastewater has agreed to pay more than $35 million in civil and criminal fines. The U.S. Department of Justice said the 2014 spill is the largest inland oil drilling spill of produced water, which is a waste product of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The spill from the 96-mile underground pipeline contaminated more than 30 miles of Missouri River tributaries as well as land and groundwater. Summit admitted in court documents that it knowingly failed to share all relevant information regarding the volume and duration of the spill.