What happened

A leak from the Colonial Pipeline in the Oehler Nature Preserve near Huntersville, North Carolina began around 27 July 2020 and went undetected — including by an aerial patrol two days before discovery — until two teenagers riding an ATV found gasoline bubbling from the ground on 14 August. The spill released an estimated 2 million gallons of gasoline, one of the largest onshore fuel spills in US history, with cleanup still ongoing years later. This was an accidental pipeline failure, not an attack.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.