'No oil in water' claims disproven

It was originally thought that Lake Conway had escaped the effects of the tar sands oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas that occurred  in March of this year. The oil spill was caused by the ruptured Pegasus pipeline, owned by ExxonMobil.

Independent testing, provided by Opflex Solutions, shows that ExxonMobil's latest cleaning update - which stated that there was no oil whatsoever in the water of Lake Conway - may not have been accurate. The tests confirm that bitumen heavy crude oil has contaminated the lake and may be spreading to the Arkansas River.

Scott Smith, president and chief executive of Opflex Solutions, said: "Yes, there's oil in Lake Conway and there's oil flowing downstream to Arkansas River, I have found methylene chloride and barium in concentrates indicative of tar sands oil."

This news comes just after Arkansas attorney general Dustin McDaniel announced that the damage to the pipeline was much larger than it was originally reported. ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline suffered a 22-foot-long and two-inch-wide gash which ended up flooding the community with - what turned out to be - thousands of gallons of tar sands oil.