A faulty pipeline has leaked approximately 176,000 gallons of crude oil into a North Dakota creek some 150 miles from the campsite where activists protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The leak from the Belle Fourche Pipeline, approximately two and a half hours from the DAPL protest site, started at the beginning of the month or earlier, officials said. A landowner spotted crude oil spilling from the pipe and into the nearby Ash Coulee Creek on December 5. Electronic monitoring systems failed to detect the leak. The oil spread approximately six miles down the creek before the spill was stopped, officials said. Anti-DAPL protesters have suggested a similar scenario could occur with the Dakota Access Pipeline, which developers want to construct under a river on Native American land. Should the pipeline leak into the river, it would pollute one of the main water sources for local tribes.
