Pipeline 150 Miles From Standing Rock Spills Over 170,000 Gallons of Crude | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community
Monitoring equipment failed to detect the breakage, and it is unknown how long the pipeline was leaking before a landowner discovered it
by
Nika Knight, staff writer
A pipeline just two and half hours' drive from the Indigenous water protectors' ongoing stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline has leaked over 170,000 gallons of crude oil into a tributary of the Little Missouri River and into a hillside, it was reported late Monday.
Monitoring equipment failed to detect the leak, and it is unknown how long the spill near Belfield, North Dakota had gone on before a local landowner discovered it on December 5.
At least two cows have been confirmed dead near the site of the spill, reports the Pioneer Press.
The Belle Fourche pipeline is operated by the Wyoming-based True Companies, which is the same company behind the 2015 pipeline rupture in Montana that sent over 40,000 barrels of crude into Yellowstone River. Indeed, at that time it was reported that the operator had a "checkered environmental history," with 30 recorded pipeline leaks and multiple federal fines on its record.
