Pipeline Stopped After Agreement With Tribes Expires

The pipeline that transports fuel from Billings refineries to Eastern Washington shut down as Indian tribes Thursday continued their refusal to renew a right-ofway across their reservation.

Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation were notified of the shutdown Thursday morning in a telephone call from Yellowstone Pipeline Co., a tribal official said. She did not know when the fuel had stopped flowing.

Yellowstone Pipeline’s right-of-way on the reservation was set to expire at midnight Thursday. Because of past fuel spills, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes last month voted not to renew the right-of-way.

With the expiration looming, operators of the pipline had been stockpiling fuel in Eastern Washington. They made plans to move fuel around the bottleneck by truck or rail if the stored supplies fell too low as attempts to negotiate a right-of-way renewal continued.

The 558-mile pipeline that moved petroleum products from Billings to Moses Lake supplied 40 percent of the fuel consumed in Spokane, Eastern Washington’s major city.

The Salish and Kootenai Tribes received a new right-of-way offer on Thursday, but had not examined it, said Rhonda Swaney, vice chairman of the Tribal Council.

The backup plan announced this week by Yellowstone Pipeline Co. calls for gasoline, aviation fuel and other products from Billings to be piped as far as Missoula. Gasoline then was to be trucked to Thompson Falls and dumped back into the pipeline. Diesel and aviation fuel were expected to move by rail.