Photo courtesy of JERRY SAMUELSON, McKenzie County Emergency Manager
An explosion on a treater at a saltwater disposal well southwest of Alexander Thursday dumped 2,710 barrels of saltwater and crude on site and destroyed all the storage tanks.
A noontime explosion at a saltwater disposal well site Thursday near Alexander dumped 2,440 barrels of saltwater and 270 barrels of oil and destroyed 13 storage tanks at a disposal facility owned by Mesa Oil Services.
McKenzie County Emergency Manager Jerry Samuelson said the cause of the explosion was not known.
Samuelson said a tanker driver had just unloaded at the disposal site when the treater exploded, setting fire to the adjacent storage tanks. A treater is a piece of equipment that uses heat to separate out oil.
Preserve the Beartooth Front 