In 2011, 63,000 gallons of crude oil leaked into the Yellowstone river. This January, another 30,000 gallons found its way into the same waters.
These instances have brought about a new measure recently approved by the a Senate committee. Montana senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines co-sponsored the movement that passed through on Thursday.
A new amendment will require safety reports from federal transportation officials on pipelines that run under rivers and could leak into them.
The Transportation Department will now be responsible for processing these reports, according to the amendment to the department’s recent funding bill.
The Yellowstone river is especially prone to changes with the weather, and floods can easily shift the sediment in the riverbed, exposing pipelines and leaving them open to ruptures and leaks.
Infrastructure upkeep like this will be important not only to the future of the rivers, but to the future of the companies moving oil and other harmful liquids under them.
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