We thought the Yellowstone River oil spill this past summer was a little close for comfort. Well, guess what. We got word late yesterday afternoon, with some additional information trickling in to us today that a 10-inch Conoco-Phillips pipeline, pumping unleaded gasoline from Billings to Spokane is suffering a “slow drop in pressure” somewhere between Pritchard and Cataldo.  The current focus of attention is in the Enaville to Cataldo stretch. From an email from Sandy Von Behren in Kootenai County’s Department of Emergency Management: "Yellowstone Pipeline (Conoco/Phillips) identified a small reduction in pressure in their 10” high pressure petroleum pipeline between Prichard and Cataldo this past Saturday.  Yellowstone reps have walked the entire line between Prichard and Cataldo and have not located any indication of the leak on the surface"/Terry Harris, Kootenai Environmental Alliance. More here. (Jesse Tinsley SR file photo: A great blue heron wolfs down a fish in the Medimont area of the chain lakes in the Coeur d’Alene River basin)

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