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More than a quarter of a million gallons of petrol spilled into a central Alabama pond after an underground pipeline ruptured earlier this month.

The pond, a defunct mining retention pool, feeds a small creek that flows into the , home to dozens of rare and threatened species. Despite the close proximity – the pond is within a couple kilometres of the river – the fuel hasn’t made it that far, says Chris Smith at the .

“Currently it seems to be contained,” Smith says. “There are, no doubt, some threats, but right now there doesn’t seem to be any significant impact on the Cahaba river or the tributary.”

The river is the longest undammed river in Alabama, and preserves the unique ecology of the region, Smith says. That includes 13 species found only in the Cahaba, as well as the largest known patch of , an ethereal white flower that grows in shallow, fast-moving water, and which is already .

“We didn’t dodge a bullet, we dodged a howitzer hit,” says at Cahaba Riverkeeper, an environmental organisation dedicated to protecting the river.

The spill was first detected when a mining inspector smelled petrol fumes on 9 September, according to the line’s owner, Colonial Pipeline. At least , and perhaps more than , escaped before the line was shut off.

The pipeline normally shuttles 1.3 million barrels of petrol from refineries on Texas’ Gulf Coast to the eastern US each day. Fuel prices have shot up in the south-eastern US since the leak altogether.

The spill has prompted – but not over environmental concerns. The orders allow fuel truck drivers to drive longer shifts to help prevent shortages.

Colonial Pipeline is now constructing a replacement line around the site.

“Right now our focus has moved to the bypass line,” says company spokesman Don Pozin. It could be finished this week.

In the meantime, the company is working with federal and state agencies to clean up the spill. A fleet of vacuum trucks has already skimmed most of the fuel off the surface of the mining pond, says at the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Drinking water has not been contaminated by the spill, Eichinger says, though officials are keeping an eye on a municipal well located about 8 kilometres away.

The biggest environmental concern is the possibility of a large, multi-day rain storm, which could cause the pond and any fuel left inside it to overflow into the tributary to the Cahaba, and then into the river itself, says Eichinger. As a precaution, dams have been built on the tributary to scrape the fuel off the surface while allowing water to pass below.

“The Cahaba river is a beautiful river system,” Eichinger says. “We really do not want to have this fuel impact the Cahaba.”