The oil may never reach Bismark because it will pollute Lake Sakakawea on the Missouri River first. Or it could go all the way down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and join BP’s oil. Pipelines leak. Let’s stop building more of them. Solar power is faster, cheaper, and far safer.

Jessica Summers, Bloomberg news, 18 January 2015, Oil Spills Into Yellowstone River After Montana Crude Pipe Leak,

Oil pumped in the Bakken leaked from a pipeline into the Yellowstone River near Glendive in Montana on Saturday.

The 12-inch crude line is shut, according to Bill Salvin, an outside spokesman for True Companies, whose Bridger Pipeline LLC operates the Poplar pipe system. As much as 1,200 barrels of oil leaked from the pipeline, much of which went into the Yellowstone River, Dave Parker, spokesman for Montana Governor Steve Bullock, said by phone. A cause for the leak hasn’t been determined, according to Parker.

Yep, as usual, “a cause for the leak hasn’t been determined”. And if PHMSA is in charge of the investigation, we may never know.

That Bridger pipeline is the green one on this map. It’s just one among many in the Williston Basin, at least two of the others crossing the Missouri River, with a refinery on the same river.

Does that look safe to you? Do you want fracked methane pipelines under our rivers and through our fragile karst limestone in our drinking water Floridan Aquifer? No new pipeline. Solar power for the Sunshine State, Georgia, Alabama, and the rest of the world.

-jsq

Short Link: