BILLINGS — Thousands of people in a Montana city can resume drinking from their taps after a federal official said there are no further signs of contamination from a weekend crude oil spill into a nearby river.
Paul Peronard with the Environmental Protection Agency said test results received Thursday no longer show elevated levels of cancer-causing benzene in the municipal water supply of Glendive.
Officials had detected the benzene levels after 40,000 gallons of oil spilled on Saturday from a pipeline break beneath the Yellowstone River upstream from the city.
Peronard says residents should run the water from their taps to flush any residual contamination.
Officials are struggling to clean the crude, most of which is believed trapped beneath ice on the river.