Saltwater between 10 to 30 times saltier than sea water is an unwanted byproduct of oil and natural gas production and obviously a threat to the environment. A pipeline owned by Aero Pipeline LLC a subsidiary of Crestwood Midstream Partners out of Houston, TX leaked about a million gallons of the salty brine which sometimes contains petroleum and fracking residue near North Dakota’s Bear Den Bay, which feeds Lake Sakakawea, which feeds a Missouri River Reservoir which provides drinking water to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. When you look at nature everything is connected to everything.
Unfortunately, the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes are located on the reservation in the heart of the North Dakota oil boom. A patch of dead vegetation runs a good 200 yards from the source of the spill, but the brine continues for at least 2 miles down a ravine. The company had no spill warning indicators on the line at the spill point. The latest figures available for this briny byproduct produced in North Dakota with oil and gas extraction is 25.5 million barrels in 2012. So far, the EPA and tribal officials think their water supply is unaffected.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/million-gallons-saltwater-leaks-north-dakota-pipeline-n152451
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/10/nd-pipeline-leaks_n_5573114.html