On Saturday morning, a pipeline in Montana spilled up to 50,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, the pipeline’s operator confirmed Sunday night.

Some residents are reportedly smelling and tasting oil in their drinking water, causing the EPA to test water samples and the city water plant to cease drawing water from the river.

The 12-inch diameter steel pipe breached and spilled anywhere from 12,600 to 50,000 gallons of oil nine miles upriver from the town of Glendive, with an unknown amount of it spilling into the partially frozen river, according to a statement from Bridger Pipeline LLC.

The company said the spill occurred at 10 a.m. and they “shut in” the flow of oil just before 11 a.m. — meaning that though the pipeline section could still empty itself of its contents, no new addition oil would flow into the spilled area.

“Oil has made it into the river,” Bridger spokesperson Bill Salvin confirmed to the AP on Monday. “We do not know how much at this point.” Observers spotted oil, some of which was trapped under the ice, up to 60 miles downstream from Glendive.

Paul Peronard, the EPA’s on-scene coordinator, said crews were attempting to use booms to prevent the spill from spreading further but the ice on top of the river was forcing them to “hunt and peck” through it.

Clean-up crews were en route to the site on Sunday afternoon after local, state, and federal levels were notified. The pipeline sits at least eight feet below the river bed. There are concerns that the water supply could be compromised, though the City of Glendive Water Plant said on Sunday that nothing unusual had been detected.

“I am not saying the water is unsafe. I am not saying it is safe,” said Dawson County Disaster and Emergency Services coordinator Mary Jo Gehnert, according to MTN News. “We are waiting for officials to arrive who can make that decision.”

“We think it was caught pretty quick, and it was shut down,” said Montana Governor Steve Bullock spokesperson Dave Parker, noting that the river was frozen over near the spill, which could help isolate the spill.

Parker told MTN News that “the Governor is committed to ensuring that the river is completely cleaned up and the folks responsible are held accountable.”

In 2011, an Exxon Mobil pipeline spilled 63,000 gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone near Laurel, Montana. Days after the spill, goat rancher Alexis Bonogofsky was hospitalized for acute hydrocarbon exposure after noticing oil slicks along the riverbank abutting her ranch. She lived far enough downstream that any evacuation order missed her, she said. There was concern then that the cause of the spill was related to climate-change-influenced raging floodwaters that exposed the normally deeply-buried pipe to damaging debris.

Even two years later, the state was still fighting with Exxon over damages to the area from the spill and the clean-up process, leaving fish, birds, and wildlife dead or injured and interrupting environmental studies, recreation, and fishing.

Bridger’s pipeline runs from the Canadian border down through Montana across the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers and east into North Dakota, dubbed the Poplar System. It is on the opposite side of Wyoming from, and downstream of, Yellowstone National Park, but the river empties into the Missouri River.

The proposed — and controversial — northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline would be three times the diameter of the breached Bridger pipeline, and pump more than 34 million gallons of oil per day through the Dakotas down into Nebraska and into the southern leg in Oklahoma and Texas.

Many landowners and local residents are concerned about what a potential spill would mean for critical watersheds and aquifers — not to mention what subsequent increased tar sands oil production means for Canadian watersheds.

*

MEANWHILE, Claire Moser reports for Think Progress that Congress has begun 2015 with a "No More National Parks" bill in the form of legislation, introduced last Tuesday, which would amend the 1906 Antiquities Act to effectively block the President from designating any new national monuments without congressional approval and an extensive environmental review:

Earlier last week, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) introduced a bill to strip current and future presidents’ authority to designate national monuments, proposing an overhaul to a law that presidents have used for nearly a century to protect some of the country’s most iconic and treasured places.

The bill, introduced Tuesday, would amend the 1906 Antiquities Act to effectively block the President from designating any new national monuments without congressional approval and an extensive environmental review. Additionally, the bill would require the President to seek approval from nearby state governments for marine monument proposals.

“Americans value our National Parks and iconic areas like Grand Canyon and Statue of Liberty, but this legislation would attack the century-old law that has helped protect them,” said Alex Taurel, Deputy Legislative Director at the League of Conservation Voters. “By introducing this bill, Rep. Young has proven how out of step with the American people he truly is.”

Sixteen presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have used the Antiquities Act to permanently protect public lands and historic sites since the Act’s passage in 1906. Some of America’s most beloved and iconic landmarks, like the Grand Tetons and Arches National Park, were originally protected as national monuments under the Act.

President Obama recently used the Act for the 13th time in his presidency to protect the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument outside of Los Angeles.

Rep. Young, who has co-sponsored similar legislation in the past, is one of several other members of Congress who are fighting to gut the Antiquities Act and weaken protections on public lands, but who feature national monuments prominently on social media and their websites: the background of Rep. Young’s website currently features a stock photo of Denali National Park and Preserve, a portion of which was originally designated as a national monument by President Carter in 1978.

Attacks on the Antiquities Act from Republican members of Congress are not new. Last March, the House passed legislation to block presidents from establishing national monuments by limiting the number of designations a president can make per term, and creating additional roadblocks to limit executive authority under the Act. More attacks on the Act and attempts to weaken protections for public lands are expected this year as the GOP-controlled Congress works to implement its agenda.

Despite the efforts of Rep. Young and his allies, new polling data shows that 70 percent of American voters strongly support efforts by President Obama to permanently protect some public lands for future generations as national monuments or wildlife refuges, including 76 percent of independent voters. The poll also found that more than two out of three Americans oppose efforts to stop the creation of new national monuments, parks and wilderness areas.

“The new Congress is already moving quickly on an agenda backed by fossil-fuel interests that would weaken protections for clean air and clean water, roll back investments in renewable energy, fast track exports of American oil, and prioritize special interest giveaways on America’s public lands,” said former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, Counselor to the Center for American Progress and President of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

“The fossil-fuel agenda of the new Congress is out of step with public opinion and it’s out of step with the priorities of middle-class families who want more renewable energy, cleaner air for their kids, and places that will be set aside for future generations to enjoy.”

Until late last year, Congress had failed to pass any significant land conservation legislation since 2009, and the 113th Congress closed with numerous bills to protect public lands left on the table. President Obama has said that he will continue to “pick up a little bit of the slack” while Congress fails to act, and is expected to designate new national monuments this year.