Steve Bullock Calls For Deeper Pipelines After Oil Spills

Montana's governor is calling on the Obama administration to strengthen rules that require oil pipelines to be buried just 4 feet beneath major waterways.

The Democratic governor's Friday request comes after two breaches spilled a combined 93,000 gallons of crude into the Yellowstone River.

River scouring due to flooding or an ice jam is being investigated as a possible cause of a spill near Glendive last month. In 2011, an Exxon Mobil pipeline broke during flooding near Laurel and contaminated dozens of miles of river bank with oil.

Bullock said Friday in a letter to Transportation Secretary Anthony Fox that he wants existing lines surveyed to determine how deeply they're buried. Bullock also wants more federal inspectors in Montana, which currently has only one overseeing 3,800 miles of pipelines.