Not a Good Kind of Rainbow

 

I like rainbows - most of the time. But when "rainbows" are in creek water, it's not a good thing.

We were notified Wednesday, September 13, about an oil spill that impacted our Rattlesnake Creek Pasture. The "rainbow" in the creek water was the sheen of oil floating on the surface of the Rattlesnake Creek. 

Google map - From www.hutchpost.com

On September 12, the Kansas Corporation Commission notified the Environmental Protection Agency of the oil discharge to Rattlesnake Creek in Stafford County, according to Ben Washburn, Public Affairs Officer for EPA Region 7.

Google map - From www.hutchpost.com

An article in The Hutchinson Post said that the responsible party reported 90,000 gallons of brine, or salt water generated during oil production, spilled from a disposal well line that transects Rattlesnake Creek approximately 0.25 mile east of NE 90th Avenue. The brine contained an estimated 600 to 700 gallons of oil.

This Haz Mat vehicle was in the pasture, and we met another Haz Mat trailer on the road as we were leaving.

The oil company and the EPA responded quickly. Once on site, the  EPA On-Scene Coordinator observed areas of sheening and small pockets of oil up to 2.1 miles from the source of the spill, including our pasture. Responsible party contractors have recovered approximately 160 barrels (6,720 gallons) of mostly brine to date. The responsible party contractors are continuing oil containment and recovery operations under EPA oversight. On Friday, small amounts of oil were observed up to 4 miles downstream of the spill location, according to Washburn. They reported no observed impacts within the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, which is a few miles away from our pasture. 

Randy talking with a Haz Mat crew after they'd built a dam over the creek in our pasture.

 To corral the oil, they placed a boom along Rattlesnake Creek to prevent further oil migration. 

The disposal well line that was the source of the spill was isolated and is no longer actively leaking, according to the EPA.

Sunday night, we were back in the pasture to see the progress made.

Ironically, it wasn't the only oil leak in the pasture. We were in Topeka and Kansas City celebrating birthdays when we got a phone call from the Millers, who care for our cattle and their own at the Rattlesnake Pasture. A different pumping unit was spraying oil. Todd got the unit shut off, but it did leave behind some oil.

 

On Wednesday, Randy went back to the pasture and found that the oil company had already cleaned up the site and the well was up and pumping again.

The booms are still in place on the creek, though, and he said there were plenty of Haz Mat Response team vehicles supervising the progress. (Unlike me, he didn't take any photos.) They told Randy that they'd likely remove the booms and the dam in a few days.

 

Magic Exists Among Wildflowers

"If all flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her beauty

and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflowers."

- Therese of Lisieux (Society of the Little Flower - a Saint of Missions)

It's been a hot, dry summer. Crops have struggled. Depleted pasture grasses have led to early trips to cattle sales, all throughout the Plains, including with our own herd. But, miraculously, the wildflowers still bloom.

On a cool day after our machinery sale, Randy took me on an excursion to the Big Pasture. We used the new-to-us Gator for the trip, giving us a way to traverse some of the rougher terrain of the pasture. 

Even as grasses crunched underfoot, there were wildflowers in bloom.

 

Magic exists. 

Who can doubt it, when there are rainbows and wildflowers,

 the music of the wind and the silence of the stars?

- Author Nora Roberts

 

As a loyal K-State fan - and lover of all things purple - one of my favorites was the wooly verbena in bloom.

Some were the more familiar purple-crowned green stalks. But other plants seem to have congregated together, creating more like a purple-topped bush.
 

 

If you examine the individual blooms, the blossoms are tiny and intricate.

There was also an abundance of Snow on the Mountain.

The variegated leaves are almost as pretty as the blooms themselves. 

 

"Wildflowers are the loveliest of all 

because they grow in uncultivated soil, 

in those hard, rugged places 

where no one expects them to flourish."

-Micheline Ryckman

 

I'm not sure what these little pinkish-white wildflowers are.

 

I found them in the shadow of a bridge. (If you know, please let me know. I tried to find them on Kansas Wildflowers and wasn't sure.)

Are these yellow blooms Thread-leaf Sundrops (aka narrow-leaved evening primrose)? Again, I'm not sure.

Mr. Turtle in the creek didn't know either. Or, at least, he wasn't talking.

I don't need any help identifying our Kansas state flower - the sunflower. Even before we entered the pasture, the Kansas sunflowers waved a greeting as we motored past. Roads that get a minimum of maintenance often have a corridor of yellow lining the dirt path. The road to the pasture was no exception.

 

Iowans call our beautiful state flower a noxious weed. Well, to each his own, I guess.

 

 

 "One person's weed is another person's wildflower."

- Susan Wittig Albert

 

To be thrilled by the stars at night;

to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower 

 — these are some of the rewards of the simple life."

-John Burroughs

On a trip to the pasture 10 days later or so, the Rocky Mountain beeplant, or peritoma serrulata, was blooming.

So was the annual eriogonum, the little "baby's breath" looking white blooms.

The tiny yellow camphor weed was abundant along the ditches. 

They formed a "carpet" of yellow along the roadways. It was pretty ... but also somewhat smelly.

I think I like wildflowers best. 

They just grow wherever they want. 

 No one has to plant them. 

And then their seeds blow in the wind 

and they find a new place to grow.

-Rebecca Donovan