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Pipeline 150 miles from Dakota protests leaks 130,000 gallons
Pipeline 150 miles from Dakota Access protests leaks 176,000 gallons
Story highlights
- "Any time oil gets into water ... we take it more seriously," North Dakota official says
- Spill is 150 miles from Cannon Ball, where protesters have fought construction of the Dakota Access pipeline
(CNN)Activists who have demonstrated for months against the Dakota Access Pipeline may have some fuel to justify their protests.
A
spill has occurred 150 miles from Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where
protesters have fought construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
State
officials estimate 4,200 barrels of crude oil, or 176,000 gallons, have
leaked from the Belle Fourche Pipeline in Billings County.
Of
that amount, 130,000 gallons of oil has flowed into Ash Coulee Creek,
while the rest leaked onto a hillside, said Bill Suess, spill
investigation program manager at the North Dakota Department of Health.
Built in the 1980s, the pipeline is 6 inches in diameter and transports
about 1,000 barrels of oil daily, he said. The leak happened December 5.
"Any
time it gets into water, we respond differently and we take it more
seriously," Suess said. He said more than 100 people are working to
clean up the spill. Investigators are still trying to determine the
cause, he said.
The
incident happened less than a three-hour drive from Cannon Ball, where
protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe have simmered for months
over the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline. The $3.7 billion project
would connect oil-rich areas of North Dakota to Illinois, where the
crude oil could then be transported to refineries on the Gulf Coast or
the East Coast.
The demonstrations have turned violent at times.
Military veterans march in support of protesters at the Standing Rock Sioux reservation on December 5.
The
Standing Rock Sioux tribe sued the US Army Corps of Engineers after the
pipeline was granted final permits in July. The tribe said the project
will not only threaten its environmental and economic well-being, but
will also cut through sacred land. It said construction would destroy
burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts.
In early December, the US Army Corps of Engineers announced it would look for an alternate route for the pipeline, although the pipeline is nearly complete.
Companies behind the project have pushed back.
Energy
Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners said they expect to
complete the construction without additional rerouting. They have taken
legal action, asking a federal court to allow them to complete the pipeline.
The Dakota Access Pipeline would transport 470,000 barrels of oil a day across four states, Energy Access Partners said.
It
will pass through an oil-rich area in North Dakota with an estimated
7.4 billion barrels of undiscovered oil. This oil would be shipped to
markets and refineries in the Midwest, East Coast and Gulf Coast
regions.
By the numbers
1,172 miles: Length of Dakota Access Pipeline
30 inches: Width of the pipeline
470,000: Barrels of crude oil to be moved daily
374.3 million: Equivalent gallons of gasoline per day
Sources: Energy Access Partners, US Energy Information Administration
30 inches: Width of the pipeline
470,000: Barrels of crude oil to be moved daily
374.3 million: Equivalent gallons of gasoline per day
Sources: Energy Access Partners, US Energy Information Administration
This way, the project developer said, the United States could tap its own backyard for oil, rather than relying on imports from unstable regions of the world.
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