Yellowstone

[johnsquires]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/20/us/yellowstone-river-spill/index.html

[johnsquires]

Just stop telling us this kind of thing is not going to happen when you're proposing it. We're not stupid, regardless of what you may think.

[JasonB]

I also saw there was another big leak from a pipeline in Iowa: 138,000 gallons of diesel! http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/26/511636325/its-a-big-one-iowa-pipeline-leaks-nearly-140-000-gallons-of-diesel
It's worth reading that this same company seems to have a bit of a history of problems! Not that we can quite do without (yet), but we really should be a lot more careful how we handle our toxic materials. Routing a pipeline under the Yellowstone river is one of those obvious recipes for disaster; kind of like laying an expensive new fly rod on the ground at a boat ramp and then being horrified when it gets run over. I don't quite qualify things like this as "accidents"; we know failures do happen and will happen the question are simply how much damage those failures will do and what methods we can minimize those damages.
JB

[johnsquires]

no one seems to think about all the toxic "stew" that going into the rivers off our roads every time it rains/snows.

Probably because, for whatever reason, we don't seem to have massive flora and fauna kills from that.

[Darian]

In addition to what is cited by johnsquires, seems like another instance of cost vs benefit or risk vs reward being the determining factor in whether storm run-off is captured and treated or not. If costs are high maybe a project to capture run-off is delayed or never undertaken.