{"id":9404,"date":"2019-10-23T03:24:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T08:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/kxl-pipeline-fighters-call-for-backup-at-water-permit-hearings\/"},"modified":"2019-10-23T03:24:20","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T08:24:20","slug":"kxl-pipeline-fighters-call-for-backup-at-water-permit-hearings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/kxl-pipeline-fighters-call-for-backup-at-water-permit-hearings\/","title":{"rendered":"KXL Pipeline fighters call for backup at water permit hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rosebud Sioux member Hannah Reddish, a resident of Pennington County on the slated Keystone XL Pipeline route, was one of the self-proclaimed water protectors at a recent rally in Rapid City who carried posters to raise awareness of the construction\u2019s threats. (Photo by Talli Nauman)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

PART III
\nPIERRE \u2013 Bracing for another round of hearings about giving public water to the Canadian TC Energy Corp. for building the private Keystone XL Pipeline, self-proclaimed water protectors urged participation and a letter-writing campaign in opposition.
\nThe South Dakota Water Management Board is set to meet on Oct. 29-31 to entertain three KXL water permits \u201crequesting a large amount of our surface water for one purpose \u2013 to build a hazardous materials pipeline in a diagonal across agricultural lands,\u201d said Bruce Ellison, representing opponent grassroots Dakota Rural Action, at the most recent of two previous water permit hearings Oct. 3-4.
\nThe slated route runs through nine counties on a diagonal line through West River South Dakota.
\n\u201cWith the flooding we have been having, the instability of much of these lands should be of an importance,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are transporting a foreign company\u2019s fracked oil across our state at great risk. This is oil from which we get virtually no benefit,\u201d he added.
\nDakota Rural Action joins other petitioners against the tar-sands crude oil line\u2019s construction, among them Mniwakan Nakicijinpi (Lone Eagle family youth pipeline fighters), the Yankton, Rosebud, and Cheyenne River Sioux tribal governments, and the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance, as well as individuals from South Dakota and Nebraska.
\nTheir sign-on letter for the cause states: \u201cWe, the undersigned, OBJECT to the use of our public waters for these purposes, and we URGE the Water Management Board to use public interest and beneficial use considerations to DENY these permits in order to PROTECT our water supply for current and future generations.\u201d
\nTC Energy Corp., formerly named TransCanada Corp., seeks nearly 167 million gallons of water over a two-year period from the Cheyenne, White, and Bad rivers for use in building and testing the tar-sands crude oil line.
\nAt the same time, the board is considering applications from separate individual well owners for two permits to divert flow from Inyan Kara and Hell\u2019s Creek underground water tables in order to assure supply for six man camps \u2014 squatter settlements for the transient workers from elsewhere who would be hired to install the line.
\n\u201cThese applications are not for beneficial use and their approval would be a waste of water,\u201d said Peter Caposella, representing the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance.
\nHe argued that allocating water to the company when it has no federal permits to proceed would unlawfully take the resource out of circulation. He also noted \u201cconcerns with pipeline failures\u201d and \u201ccrimes against women,\u201d which demonstrably increased in man-camp areas of North Dakota\u2019s Bakken oilfield.
\nJennifer Baker, speaking on behalf of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, said, \u201cThere is a possibility the tribe\u2019s water use and other\u2019s will be affected by a spill.\u201d
\nSouth Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources Chief Engineer Jeanne Goodman has recommended approval of the two underground water permits and the river water allocation.
\nHer permit recommendations are based on the criteria of \u201creasonable probability that unappropriated water is available, the proposed diversion can be developed without unlawful impairment of existing rights, and the proposed use is beneficial and in the public interest,\u201d she said.
\nFiguring prominently in the board proceedings was Mark Rath, lead surface water engineer for the Water Rights Program. It is his job to review applications and flood issues, having worked in the department some 30 years. He was called to testify in the role of expert witness for the pipeline company, despite Ellison\u2019s objection.
\nThe board barred the Lone Eagle youngsters from questioning Rath without a formally processed adult representative, but their mother Elizabeth Lone Eagle asked if he considered the spiritual use of the water.
\nHe said no, and in another answer to her, he said he was not aware that the place where the pipeline is slated to cross the Cheyenne River is in proximity to Big Foot\u2019s last camp before he perished at the Wounded Knee Massacre.
\nIn answer to cross-examination from Caposella, Rath said he did not know whether surface and subsurface water connect in the water use area.
\nHowever, he said \u201ca reasonable probability exists\u201d of adequate supply for the project without impairing current water rights.
\nTransCanada Corp.\u2019s plan is to finish the remaining pipelaying along the part of its route that runs across unceded 1868 Ft. Laramie Treaty territory in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
\nThe rest of the construction megaproject already has been completed across Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas to Nebraska but has been ensnarled in permit disputes and court battles in the Northern Great Plains for about 10 years.
\nIf finalized, the Keystone XL could allow the company to accomplish its goal of shipping tar-sands oil in solution, or diluted bitumen (dilbit) from the boreal forest of the Athabascan ancestral lands north of Alberta Province to the refineries and export facilities located on the Gulf of Mexico.
\nTransCanada Corp.\u2019s Keystone I Pipeline, which traverses every eastern border county of South Dakota, spilled dilbit more than a dozen times in 2011, its first full year of operation.
\nLater, major South Dakota mop-ups on Keystone I drew first responders to Freeman for a 16,800-gallon spill in 2016, and to Amherst for a 276,864-gallon spill in 2017. A 1,800-gallon spill occurred on the line near St. Louis, Missouri, in 2019.
\nThe petitioners against the permits are calling for an environmental impact statement to provide a more in-depth analysis of the impacts of this set of permits.
\nTheir sign-on letter is available at www.dakotarural.org\/issues\/keystone-xl-pipeline\/<\/a><\/p>\n

(Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Rosebud Sioux member Hannah Reddish, a resident of Pennington County on the slated Keystone XL Pipeline route, was one of the self-proclaimed water protectors at a recent rally in Rapid City who carried posters to raise awareness of the construction\u2019s threats. (Photo by Talli Nauman) PART III PIERRE \u2013 Bracing <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> October 23, 2019<\/p>\n

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