A leak in a major gasoline pipeline running from Houston to New York was discovered late last week in rural Shelby County, about 30 miles south of Birmingham. The operator, Colonial Pipeline, announced yesterday that the total volume spilled was approximately 250,000 gallons.

Here's what we know so far about the spill and response and what lies ahead:

UPDATED at 2:49 p.m. -- State of emergency declared to keep gas flowing: Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal each issued executive orders Thursday to declare states of emergency over concerns about gasoline shortages in areas served by the pipeline.

The orders will allow fuel delivery truck drivers in each state to exceed maximum hours limits established by the U.S. Department of Transportation and prevent gasoline outages. The orders apply only to trucks that are transporting fuel.

Bentley concluded his order by reminding all Alabama residents "it is unlawful for any person within the State of Alabama to impose unconscionable prices for the sale of any commodity during the period of a declared State of Emergency."

Crews are working around the clock to clean it up: Colonial Pipeline spokesman Bill Berry said that a total of 519 Colonial employees and outside contractors are working in shifts to remove the gasoline and remove the spilled material from rural Shelby County southeast of Helena.

There is still gas in the pipeline, possibly still leaking: The leaking pipeline was shut down on Friday after the leak was discovered, but Berry said there may be additional gas still inside the pipeline. The leaking section of pipeline hasn't been excavated yet due to safety precautions, so Berry said the condition of the pipeline and cause of the leak is still unknown.

Crews have installed temporary plugs in the pipeline on either side of the spill location, and gasoline is being extracted from the affected section of pipeline at those blockage sites.

The company says the leak is contained in a mining retention pond: The leak was discovered at an inactive mine site by employees of the Alabama Surface Mining Commission on Sept. 9, and Colonial says most of the gasoline is confined to a retention pond built for the mine.

Colonial is working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Cahaba Riverkeeper David Butler to monitor the nearby creeks and streams to make sure none of the gasoline reaches the river.

Butler has praised Colonial's response to the spill and believes that if the weather holds, the gasoline will not reach the river.

Vapors create a safety concern for clean-up workers: Because so much gasoline is confined to a small area, crews have to take precautions to protect themselves from vapors that could be harmful if inhaled or potentially flammable if they reach certain concentrations.

Air monitoring stations have been set up at the site, with safety benchmarks based on thresholds set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. If fumes reach 10 percent of the concentration levels that would make combustion possible, workers have to leave the area.

Federal authorities restricted the airspace over the spill.

Repairs could come as early as this weekend: Colonial Pipeline's Berry said the company is hoping to be able to dig out the pipeline this weekend.

"We're not going to rush this," Berry said. "It's really kind of a function of what are the environmental conditions and how can we best maintain public safety as well as our worker safety.

"We are anxious to repair the pipeline. This is a significant piece of infrastructure in the United States for supplying petroleum products to airports, to major markets, to minor markets and it's not lost on us that this issue is affecting the supply and distribution system."

The company's Alpharetta, Ga. home office is developing work-arounds to avoid disruptions to the supply chain. According to the spill response information site, gasoline is being diverted to an alternate pipeline which is usually used for products such as diesel, jet fuel and home heating oil.

The spill is in a closed-off, unpopulated area: EPA on-scene coordinator Chuck Berry said the nearest home is about 2.5 miles away, and the spill site is accessible only by dirt roads. Those roads are blocked to non-emergency vehicles.

Some roads have been converted to one-way streets to allow easier traffic flow for response vehicles and trucks carrying spilled material back to a Colonial Pipeline tank farm in Pelham for treatment.

The recovered gasoline could potentially still be used, Berry said, but it would be treated and thoroughly tested before it was returned to the mix.

EPA, ADEM, local EMAs are on the scene: The Unified Incident Command includes personnel from the EPA, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the Pelham Fire Department, Helena Fire Department and other local agencies.

Chuck Berry with EPA said the agency's role is to enforce the Clean Water Act, and make sure Colonial Pipeline meets its obligations under the law. He said so far, they appear to be doing that.

"They have mobilized an army to respond to this spill," he said. "I would say it's been better than adequate."

ADEM will be in charge of enforcing remediation of the spill site and removal of contaminated soil or other materials to return the area to its previous condition.

Volume estimates may be low: The spill estimate was calculated using the best available information, and will likely be updated as the response continues. Chuck Berry with EPA said the most direct way to calculate the volume -- to measure the concentrations of gas in the pond and multiply by the area -- was impossible because of safety concerns over the fumes.

Berry said the volume estimates of the spill will be updated as the response continues.

"The risks far outweighed the reward of reporting additional volumes when it just means you have more material in the same place," Berry said. "It wasn't going anywhere, it wasn't migrating.

"(Increasing the estimated spill amount) would not have changed our response approach, it would not have changed much of what we've done to just drive the number just for the sake of driving the number."