Well, I spent one winter in Glasgow, Montana, which is just over the border from Williston ND, with drifts to the top of a three-story barracks and at 37 degrees below zero and a 15 mph wind for a week in 1964.  

 Not sure how relevant that is, but that's an answer to your rhetorical question.

As far as those pipelines under the rivers, there are thousands of miles of them all over the Midwest, 

 And then there are all those in Oregon, including the one that brings the gasoline from Portland down the valley to the tank farms over by the railroad tracks.

Here are the 16,000 miles of Oregon pipelines according to the Oregonian:

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2016/11/post_50.html#0

That oil is going to be moved as long as it makes money to do so.  Pipelines are the safest way to do it.  

Not without risk; there is no such human endeavor.