Home » News » Residents concerned about pipeline
News
Residents concerned about pipeline
News Articles Featured | InForum | June 19, 2011
Read the full article on the originating site
FARGO – Some North Dakota residents fear state officials aren’t doing enough to protect them from the negative impacts of a controversial oil pipeline that runs through the eastern part of the state.
Nearly a dozen residents gathered Saturday outside Fargo’s federal building to raise awareness about the impacts stemming from the Keystone I pipeline that originates in Canada’s Alberta Tar Sands.
Oil reserves there are transported to Illinois and Oklahoma through the pipeline that spans several states, including 218 miles across eastern North Dakota.
TransCanada Corp. began operating the Keystone I pipeline less than a year ago, and the project has already suffered 12 spills – yet the company had pledged a leak should only occur once every seven years, according to the Dakota Resource Council, which organized Saturday’s rally.
During the most recent spill in early May, more than 14,000 gallons of crude oil gushed from a pumping station in Brampton, about 75 miles southwest of Fargo.
Paul and Tammy Matthews operate a farm in Cogswell, about eight miles north of the pumping station. The pipeline cuts at least a half-mile long through the Matthewses’ property – but initially, it was planned to lie less than 200 feet from their home, Tammy Matthews said.
The couple had to fight TransCanada’s plans to get the pipeline moved elsewhere on their property, they said.
“If that spill had been there, our house would’ve been covered in oil,” Tammy Matthews said. “I wouldn’t want to live there.”
The Matthewses and others said they worry the North Dakota Public Service Commission hasn’t done enough to protect landowners from the impacts of the project. The three-man PSC is the state’s regulatory committee and has oversight on projects including oil, utilities and wind energy.
“There’s some real problems with it,” Democrat Fargo legislator Ed Gruchalla said of the project. “The PSC has been more of a cheerleader than a regulator.”
Current PSC members Kevin Cramer, Brian Kalk and Tony Clark are all Republicans.
The Dakota Resource Council, a nonprofit organization aimed at protecting the state’s natural resources, alleges that TransCanada hasn’t been inspecting the pipeline as the company is required to.
Citing “eyewitness accounts,” the council alleges TransCanada has made only fly-over inspections of the project, rather than analyzing the pipeline’s infrastructure on the ground.
“I simply think of our farmland and our people – that’s who really hurts the most,” said Fargo resident Sister Mari Stella Korb. “It is the responsibility of our state agencies to uphold public health and safety. That’s why we need them to enact measures that are thorough in protecting us.”
Following the May spill in southern North Dakota, the PSC launched a formal investigation into the incident. Commissioners said the inquiry would include a joint effort with federal pipeline safety investigators.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a corrective action order against TransCanada, which – among other requirements – mandates that the company preform repairs at locations that have failed along the pipeline and submit a plan to ensure no more leaks occur at those locations.
Kalk said the commission takes issues with the Keystone pipeline very seriously and are continuing to monitor the situation.
Tagged with: keystone xl, transcanada, pipeline, north dakota
