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| Free bottled water for Glendive, Mont., residents fills the EPEC Center after a Bridger Pipeline spilled oil under the Yellowstone River near the city, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015. Workers recovered about 10,000 gallons of oil from a ruptured pipeline that spilled crude into Yellowstone River and contaminated the drinking water supply of the eastern Montana city downstream. An estimated 40,000 gallons is still in the river and will be difficult to remove because of a thick layer of ice. (AP Photo/The Billings Gazette,Larry Mayer ) |
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Wyoming company says it will replace a pipeline that broke and spilled oil into the Yellowstone River with a new line buried more deeply to protect against future accidents.
The spill contaminated the water supply for 6,000 residents of Glendive, Montana. Officials said Friday that city water was certified safe to drink after tests revealed it no longer had harmful levels of chemicals.
Bridger Pipeline Co. spokesman Bill Salvin says the damaged Poplar Pipeline will remain shut down from Glendive to near the Canada border until it's replaced.
Salvin says the line was installed decades ago by dredging the river and laying the pipe across it.
It was 8 feet beneath the riverbed in 2012. Other accidents have shown pipelines beneath bodies of water can become exposed by floodwaters.
