SD Keystone Pipeline Hearings Blow Up; Extensive Evidence Of Corrosion, Failures On The Record
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Bruce Ellison, one of the lawyers for the intervenors, had handed Goulet a copy of the company’s root cause analysis report of the incident, before pointing out the corrosion area was much larger than Goulet had described. One of the defects involved a section of pipe where the wall had eroded 96.8 percent, which Ellison noted was close to a rupture incident.
TransCanada lawyers objected to any reference to the report because Goulet claimed he had never seen it and that it was classified. But since the report had already been entered into evidence, the intervenors’ lawyers were allowed by the Commission to continue questioning him. In the course of discovery, TransCanada provided the report in question as part of the unclassified documents, and therefore could not exclude the report from evidence, the Commission said.
After that dispute was settled, Goulet admitted he knew the location of sites where the pipeline had been dug up for inspection and repair. As indicated in the ‘root cause’ report, Site 5 was only 200 feet from the Mississippi River, the primary drinking water source for 18 million Americans, as well as agricultural water for crop production.
Evan Vokes, former TransCanada employee turned whistleblower, and an expert witness for the intervenors, told DeSmog he has never seen a pipeline coating corroded as badly as the failed coating of the Keystone 1. It looked as if “it had been gnawed at by rats,” he told DeSmog. Another former TransCanada employee reviewed the report and found it shocking. The fact that damaged sections of the pipe were repaired instead of replaced concerned him greatly. “We cut out better pipe than what I’ve seen in those pictures,” he told DeSmog.
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http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/07/30/keystone-xl-hits-new-turbulence-south-dakota-permit-hearing-implodes-over-pipeline-corrosion-market
= new reply since forum marked as read
wind spills. 
