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Crude Oil Storage Tank Spills In Eastern Kentucky

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Workers in eastern Kentucky are trying to clean up thousands of gallons of crude oil that has spilled into a tributary of the Big Sandy River.

Pike County Emergency Management Director Doug Tackett says a landslide broke the piping off a storage tank sometime overnight, releasing the oil inside the tank into the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy. He says an estimated 4,200 gallons spilled from the tank.

Tackett says the spill is downstream from Pike County's water intake valves and the water supply isn't affected.

An environmental cleanup company has been brought in, and WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va., says officials believe the spill can be cleaned up with booms that float on the water and collect oil.