One week ago, residents of rural Mayflower, Ark., found a river of reeking, black oil flowing through their backyards and streets. ExxonMobil, the company that owns the ruptured pipeline, evacuated the neighborhood and quickly instated something like martial law, evicting wildlife rescue workers, threatening reporters with arrest, and even winning a temporary no-fly zone over the spill. Here’s what the company is hiding, care of the EPA’s on-site coordinator web page — which was locked down shortly after we retrieved these photos. (UPDATE: The page is unlocked again. Feel free to peruse the whole collection.)
More fun oil spill reading:
- Arkansas town in lockdown after oil spill nightmare
- Good news, Arkansas: Tar-sands oil isn’t oil-oil
- ExxonMobil spills chemicals in Louisiana while cleaning spilled oil in Arkansas