Keystone XL Supporters and Critics Square off in Nebraska

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Bloomberg

By Jim Snyder

Supporters and critics of the Keystone XL pipeline starting lining up at 7 a.m. in blowing snow and sub-freezing temperatures for a chance to speak at the only public hearing on a U.S. environmental analysis of the project.

The U.S. State Department was scheduled to receive public testimony about its draft environmental impact assessment of the project’s new route from noon until 8 p.m. local time at the Heartland Event Center in Grand Island, Nebraska.

The agency’s analysis examined a new route that the project’s sponsor, TransCanada Corp. (TRP), based in Calgary, proposed after concerns were raised about the original route through a sensitive ecosystem in Nebraska. The course now juts further east to avoid the Sand Hills region, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality. Critics say the project still threatens farms and ranches and the Ogallala aquifer underneath.

“Our soil is so fragile, the oil will go down to our water when it leaks,” said Ron Crumly, who operates a 1,500 acre corn and soybean farm outside O’Neill, Nebraska. Crumly, 62, and his wife, Jeanne, 60, got in line at 7 a.m. for a chance to tell State Department officials their concerns.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-18/keystone-xl-supporters-and-critics-square-off-in-nebraska.html

[DallasNE]

1. The Spill In Arkansas Dumped 200,000 Gallons

This pipeline will carry 9 times the volume of that line. A rupture of an identical duration from this pipeline would dump 1,800,000 gallons. That would take a hellava lot of paper towels to clean up.

As I have posted before, these pipelines need to be following ridgelines where earthen damns could be quickly constructed to capture the spill before it makes it into the water supply as it did in Arkansas. Not only that, but in Arkansas they power washed more oil into the water supply. This shows the need for government oversight of cleanup operations to prevent such obscene, unsafe practices.