"Officials Suggest Pipeline Company Hid Problems After Spill"

"BILLINGS, Mont. — 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 (240,000 liters) of crude into Montana’s Yellowstone River, fouling a small city’s drinking water supply, court filings show.

The government is suing Bridger Pipeline for violations of environmental laws in the 2015 spill, which came after the line buried beneath the Yellowstone became exposed and broke when ice scoured the river bottom near Glendive, Montana. Prosecutors are pursuing similar claims against a related company over a 2016 spill in North Dakota that released more than 600,000 gallons (2.7 million liters) of crude.

The accidents came a few years after an Exxon-Mobil oil pipeline broke beneath the Yellowstone during flooding. The spills helped put a national focus on the nation’s aging pipeline network, which has continued to suffer high profile accidents including recent spills in Louisiana and California."

Matthew Brown reports for the Associated Press July 14, 2022.

Source: AP, 07/15/2022