Yellowstone River - latest damage

Federal and State workers are out gaging the environmental damage along the river. NBC’s George Lewis shows us what the damage looks like.

Containment booms dot the banks of the Yellowstone River in Southern Montana. A twelve inch ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured just before midnight Friday.

"We really apologize for the inconvenience that this incident is causing all the people in Montana,” says Gary Pruessing, President of ExxonMobil Pipeline Co.

The spill is 150 miles Northeast of Yellowstone National Park, in the town of Laurel, Montana and near the end of a 55-mile pipeline. The water, flowing away from Yellowstone Park, has carried the oil past the city of Billings. Officials restored water to the town early Saturday. Exxon officials, assessing the spill from the air, insist ground crews and park visitors are safe.

“We began monitoring air quality right after incident, and i want to confirm that we have not found any readings that are a danger to the public," says Pruessing.

Images of wildlife slicked in oil are prompting some advocacy groups to question federal safety regulations.

"I think regulators really need to be evaluating areas where we can't afford to have spills and creating, you know, a level of oversight and safety in those areas,” says Anthony Swift of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

At one point 100 people were evacuated from their homes because of the oil spill, but they have since returned. Jim Swanson is one of the affected homeowners. He says he has 600-feet of riverfront soaked with oil and as the water recedes the oil remains. Swanson says he accepts living with what goes along with being next to the river, but not this.

“I can deal with the river problems because I have to because I live down here, but this oil, we're not talking about one barrel,” say Swanson.

Swanson says he can smell the oil in his house and does not yet know if it's impacting his water supply.