The Colonial Pipeline issued a statement on 9th September 2016 regarding a leakage of a pipeline detected in Shelby County, Alabama. A number of local news outlets also reported about the gas leakage and this event was also covered on national news cable networks. Most of the readers were thinking that the incident of pipeline leakage was a hoax due to existence of another story regarding pipeline. The other story of pipeline was regarding the installation of a pipeline where hundreds of Native Americans were gathered and protested in North Dakota. This news also received international coverage on a large scale, but the news regarding gas leakage in Alabama was also original.
In the month of September 2016, it was detected that at least 6 thousand to 8 thousand barrels gasoline was leaked from the pipeline in Alabama and it caused a shortage of gas in some parts of southern states. The Governor of Alabama Robert Bentley had declared an emergency situation on 15th September 2016. This emergency suspended federal rules for limiting the hours of operators of commercial vehicles in order to confirm continuous supply of gasoline. It is important that a similar order was also signed by the Georgian Governor. The official from the Environmental Protection Agency Kevin Eichinger said that the impact of the spill would be minimal on the environment because the spill was mainly contained by ponds.