Shelby County, AL – On Sept. 9, 2016, a section of the Colonial Pipeline (which runs from Texas to new England) was discovered to have a serious leak, allowing over 250,000 gallons of oil to devastate a local wildlife reserve.

There are quite a few extreme repercussions of this spill. Firstly, it has wreaked havoc upon the naturally occurring ponds of Alabama and poses a viable threat to contaminating the Cahaba River. The Cahaba River is home to numerous rare and endangered species; oil contamination would force some of them to become extinct.

Photo courtesy of Colonial Pipeline.

The second issue is that the leak has created a severe spike in gas prices in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina. So much so, in fact, that Alabama and Georgia have declared a state of emergency in order to manage the fuel shortages that are resulting from the event in desperate attempts to ensure their state economies do not collapse.

If you are reading this article, it is likely that this is the first you have heard of these events. Why? Why is the media so negligent when it comes to environmental emergencies?

Back in June, Shell Oils experienced two spills in two weeks. And just like the current situation, hardly a word was said on the matter. A previous news piece about the Shell spills into the Gulf of Mexico and California outlines the serious consequences of ignoring these leaks:

"But what are the consequences of ignoring massive environmental disasters such as these?

They don't get fixed. Preventative measures are not taken for the future. Donations are not made to cleaning the affected areas. Families, animals, and ecosystems suffer. Not to mention the sheer cost of losing a collective amount of over 100,000 gallons of oil, a nonrenewable resource. Events involving waste of precious resources, damage of our environment, and potential corporate corruption must be addressed by our government, and ourselves. If we let it go long enough, then soon it will be too late."

And that was about a spill that was only around 100,000 gallons of oil. Now, there are currently 250,000 gallons flowing and nobody is saying a thing.

We need to start caring about our environments and our actions. It's important to keep these events in mind now more than ever, as we are seeing such extreme controversy over the Dakota Access Pipeline. If a spill this large can do this much damage and go unnoticed by the media, can you imagine the unchecked destruction that oil companies and pipeline constructors could get away with from hereon out?