Articles by Matthew Brown

Officials Suggest Pipeline Company Hid Problems After Montana Spill

U.S. prosecutors suspect a Wyoming company of potentially concealing problems with a pipeline that broke in 2015 and spilled more than 50,000 gallons of crude into Montana’s Yellowstone River, fouling a small city’s drinking water supply, court filings show. The …

Weather Whiplash: Record-Shattering Yellowstone Floods Expose Model Flaws

The Yellowstone National Park area’s weather forecast the morning of June 12 seemed fairly tame: warmer temperatures and rain showers would accelerate mountain snow melt and could produce “minor flooding.” A National Weather Service bulletin recommended moving livestock from low-lying …

Yellowstone Reopens After Changes Wrought by Flood

Hundreds of cars, trucks and recreational vehicles were backed up in long lines at entrances to Yellowstone National Park as it partially reopened Wednesday morning following record floods that reshaped the park’s rivers and canyons, wiped out numerous roads and …

Yellowstone Park Aiming for Quick Reopening After Floods

Most of Yellowstone National Park should reopen within the next two weeks, much faster than originally expected after record floods pounded the region last week and knocked out major roads, federal officials said. Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said the world-renowned …

Power Outages Increase as Extreme Weather Inflicts Toll on Aging Grid, Vulnerable Citizens

Power outages from severe weather have doubled over the past two decades across the U.S., as a warming climate stirs more destructive storms that cripple broad segments of the nation’s aging electrical grid, according to an Associated Press analysis of …

Sick Montana Workers Allege Insurer Delaying Medical Payments

Attorneys for Montana mine workers sickened and killed by toxic asbestos exposure filed a lawsuit against Zurich American Insurance this week for allegedly stalling legal settlements and medical payments after transferring the workers’ claims to investors who can profit off …

EPA Moves to End Asbestos Cleanup Along Montana Railroad

Environmental regulators are moving to end a years-long cleanup along dozens of miles of railroad in two northwestern Montana communities where lung-damaging asbestos from mining has been blamed in hundreds of deaths. The asbestos came from mining vermiculite that was …

Pipeline’s Safeguards Malfunctioned in Louisiana Diesel Spill

A corroded pipeline that ruptured and spilled 350,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of diesel fuel into a New Orleans-area wetland did not have a fully functioning leak detection system at the time, according to federal records, which also show the …

Pipeline’s Safeguards Malfunctioned in Louisiana Diesel Spill

A corroded pipeline that ruptured and spilled 350,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of diesel fuel into a New Orleans area wetland did not have a fully functioning leak detection system at the time, according to federal records, which also show …

Ruptured Pipeline Spills 300,000 Gallons of Diesel Near New Orleans

A severely corroded pipeline ruptured and spilled more than 300,000 gallons (1 million liters) of diesel fuel just outside New Orleans, according to federal records. The spill from the 16-inch (40-centimeter) diameter line operated by Collins Pipeline Co. was discovered …