WHITE EARTH Cleanup continues in the White Earth Valley where an oil company’s personnel lost control of a well the night of Saturday, Oct. 17, resulting in an oil and brine spill.

The spill site is 15 miles south of White Earth in Mountrail County. The well site is operated by Oasis Petroleum North America LLC.

Bill Suess, Bismarck, manager of the North Dakota Department of Health’s Spill Investigation Program, said Friday that any estimate on the time it will take for the cleanup to be completed would be purely speculation.

He said 18,620 barrels of fluid were recovered.

That amounts to 782,040 gallons of fluid.

“We do not yet have an estimate on total volume released,” he said.

Suess said only a light sheen has been detected on the White Earth River. “This was from windblown oil,” he said.

The river is about 850 feet north of the well pad. A few miles to the south the White Earth River empties into Lake Sakakawea.

Booms were placed across the river to help keep the spill material from migrating downstream.

As for how much of the fluid went into the water, Suess said, “It would be impossible to estimate a volume but it would be a very small amount.”

Suess said the Health Department will continue to monitor the river as cleanup progresses.

“Oasis personnel responded to this incident in a very professional and timely manner,” he said.