Accidents Waiting to Happen: Oil Pipelines

Thousands of miles of pipelines transport billions of barrels of oil across the U.S. each year, frequently passing over or near rivers, streams and other waterways. Since 2004, there have been more than 1,187 “significant incidents” involving spills of crude oil from pipelines, releasing 750,000 barrels of oil into the environment. 

Oil pipelines threaten our waterways

The U.S. has the largest oil pipeline network of any country in the world. Pipelines stretching a total of 223,000 miles transport 16.2 billion barrels of petroleum products across the country each year, including crude oil, gasoline and diesel. 

Pipelines often cross or run alongside rivers, streams and other waterways and frequently spill. These spills can cause devastating harm to wildlife, including internal organ damage, reproductive problems and death.

Oil spills from pipelines are common

Pipeline-related accidents – caused by pipeline corrosion, incorrect operation, equipment failure or other factors – are alarmingly common. From 2004 to 2023, across the country, there were 1,187 “significant incidents” involving spills of crude oil from pipelines, with a total of 750,000 barrels of oil spilled into the environment. 

Recent pipeline spills have caused serious pollution of local waterways: 

• In June 2024, a pipeline spilled oil in Smackover, Ark. More than 100,000 gallons of crude oil leaked into surrounding areas, including Smackover Creek and Holmes Creek, which flow into the Ouachita River. Turtles and frogs had to be cleaned and released by a coordinated response team. 

• In January 2015, a pipeline rupture near Glendive, Mont., spilled at least 30,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River, causing the governor to declare a state of emergency. The spill contaminated drinking water for 6,000 people, forcing them to rely on bottled water after cancer-causing benzene was detected. The spill also caused lesions and gill problems in fish, and likely harmed migratory birds using the river.

Threat spotlight: Toxic oil spills from the Keystone Pipeline

The Keystone Pipeline System, which transports crude oil through the United States and Canada, threatens thousands of waterways along its route. The almost 3,000-mile-long pipeline makes 2,370 waterway crossings, more than 300 crossings in each of the six U.S. states it passes through. The pipeline also passes through at least 455 miles of Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated flood zones. The crude tar sands oil that the pipeline transports contains bitumen, which can sink below the surface of a waterway when spilled and accumulates quickly on sediment. This is dangerous to wildlife, as oil exposure can lead to smothering, drowning, hypothermia and acute toxicity from ingestion. 

The Keystone Pipeline has been the source of multiple oil spills. In December 2022, for example, the rupture of a crack in the pipeline caused more than 500,000 gallons of crude oil to pour into a creek in Washington County, Kan., killing more than 100 animals. This was not an isolated incident. Since 2010, there have been at least 22 spills from the Keystone Pipeline: in 2017, the pipeline spilled 210,000 gallons of crude oil in Amherst, S.D., and in 2019, 383,000 gallons leaked in Edinburg, N.D.      

Protect American waterways from damaging spills

Oil pipelines put America’s streams and rivers at risk, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Policymakers have a number of options to protect our waterways from pipeline spills. Policymakers should: 

Reject new oil pipelines. Every new pipeline near our rivers and streams is another accident waiting to happen – especially when the industry can’t seem to properly maintain and operate the ones it already has.  

Use their authority under the Clean Water Act to protect waterways from new pipelines. Specifically, state policymakers can: 

• Extend clean water protections to their remaining wetlands, especially following the loss of federal protection for many existing wetlands.  
• Strengthen their anti-degradation programs under the Clean Water Act, so as to bar the siting of new risky facilities like oil pipelines that could leak or spill devastating pollution into pristine creeks and other designated waters.
• Use their authority under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act to stop pipelines that pose risks to clean water.

Set and enforce strict standards for pipelines. Ensuring that pipelines are regularly inspected and monitored, with significant penalties for safety violations, can protect the public and waterways from the impact of spills.

Transition to clean energy. The surest way to end the risk of oil pipeline spills is to eliminate our dependence on oil in the first place.

To find out more

To find pipelines in your county, check out the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s interactive map.

View Earthjustice’s resources on impacts of and recent developments in oil pipeline operation.

For more information on oil pipeline regulation, see the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s website.

Frontier Group intern Hailey Seo contributed to this resource. 

 

Pipeline map source detail: Includes “significant incidents” involving unintentional releases of oil and refined products that are liquid at room temperature. Data obtained from U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration, Pipeline Incident Flagged Files (Excel file), downloaded from https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/data-and-statistics/pipeline/pipeline-incident-flagged-files, August 5, 2024. Location of U.S. crude oil pipelines was obtained from U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Energy Atlas: Crude Oil Pipelines (GIS shapefile) downloaded from https://atlas.eia.gov/datasets/ae809a7e79354d31ab37da8df6352f84_0/explore, August 5, 2024. Location of U.S. petroleum products pipelines was obtained from U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. Energy Atlas: Petroleum Product Pipelines (GIS shapefile), downloaded from https://atlas.eia.gov/datasets/eia::petroleum-product-pipelines/explore, August 5, 2024.