Oil isn't even flowing through the Dakota Access pipeline yet, but already there's been a leak. The 1,100-mile pipeline, the subject of mass protests will be fully operational June 1, according to Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), the company that built it. But in April, a mechanical failure caused an 84-gallon oil spill northeast of Tulare, South Dakota.
The spill was entirely contained and is considered small. But for environmental groups and members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who have been fighting the pipeline since before construction began—and are still in court trying to shut it down—this spill is a harbinger of more to come and an ongoing threat to their drinking water supply.
"This is what we have said all along: Oil pipelines leak and spill," said Standing Rock Sioux Tribe chairman Dave Archambault II. "The Dakota Access pipeline has not yet started shipping the proposed half million barrels of oil per day, and we are already seeing confirmed reports of oil spills from the pipeline."
