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The data initially came from the state’s Department of Health spokeswoman Jennifer Skjod.
The last week's blizzard in the area hampered the efforts to assess the damage, and the authorities “have no estimate on when or if it will be operational,” Skjod said as quoted by The Huffington Post.
It's not entirely clear what caused the spill, either, according to Wendy Owen, a spokeswoman for the plant's owner, Wyoming-based True Companies.
The pipeline is partly buried on a hill near Ash Coulee creek, and the “hillside sloughed,” which could have broken the pipeline, Owen told AP.
“That is our No.1 theory but nothing is definitive. We have several working theories and the investigation is ongoing.”
The leak was found by a land owner about a week ago, and usually, such spills should be monitored by a special system, but this time, it failed due to “the intermittent nature of the flow,” Owen added.
About 60 workers were at the location where the leak happened on Monday, and the clean-up efforts were going at about 90 meters per day. Some of the oil is still trapped beneath the creek which is now frozen.
Over the past decade, True Companies has declared 36 other spills, leaking some 320,000 gallons of petroleum products, according to AP figures. The company operates over 2,500km of pipeline in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.