New government estimates revealed that the United States suffered the largest oil leak in its history, after the leakage of a pipeline inside a nature reserve two years ago.
Two teens accidentally discovered the leak in the Colonial pipeline in August 2020, inside Ohler Nature Reserve outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, while riding quad bikes, according to a report by E&E News.
The two teenagers noticed the leak two weeks after it happened inside the nature reserve at the time.
Although the leak occurred earlier, it was recently revealed, last Friday, that its huge volume, which amounted to nearly 2 million gallons of fuel, to become about 30 times larger than originally expected, making it the “largest leak.” fuels on land in American history,” according to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality assessment.
Colonial, the company that owns the pipeline, says it has collected about 75 percent of the two million gallons that leaked, as well as nearly 10 million gallons of water that came into contact with the oil.
The Colonial pipeline is the largest refined petroleum product pipeline system in America.
In May 2021, the pipeline had to be cut off for 5 days, after it was attacked for ransom, which caused high gas prices and panic among citizens, crowding them in front of gas stations, and also showed the catastrophic failure of the weakness of the structure. The country’s energy infrastructure in front of hackers, who used a compromised password to get into the “Colonial” network.
America was exposed to the largest fuel leak in its history
