MANDAREE, N.D. (AP) – Around 1 million gallons of saltwater has leaked from a North Dakota pipeline, some of it into a bay that leads to a lake that provides drinking water for an American Indian reservation, company and tribe officials said Wednesday.
Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Tex Hall told The Associated Press that an underground pipeline near Mandaree leaked about 24,000 barrels, or just over 1 million gallons, of saltwater near Bear Den Bay, a tributary of Lake Sakakawea. The Missouri River reservoir provides water to communities on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, occupied by the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes in the heart of western North Dakota’s booming oil patch.
Saltwater, an unwanted byproduct of oil and natural gas production that is between 10 and 30 times saltier than seawater, is considered an environmental hazard by the state. At least some damage to trees, bushes and grass was reported, but the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
Tribal and company officials said the leak has been isolated and drinking water is unaffected. It wasn’t known how much of the saltwater spilled into the bay.
Miranda Jones, vice president of environmental safety and regulatory at Houston-based Crestwood Midstream Services Inc., whose subsidiary Aero Pipeline LLC owns the pipeline, said the leak likely started over the holiday weekend but was not discovered until Tuesday. The pipeline is not equipped with a system that sends an alert when there is a leak, she said, and the spill was only discovered when the company was going through production loss reports.