{"id":9471,"date":"2019-11-06T13:15:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T18:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/kxl-oil-spill-in-north-dakota\/"},"modified":"2019-11-06T13:15:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T18:15:26","slug":"kxl-oil-spill-in-north-dakota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/kxl-oil-spill-in-north-dakota\/","title":{"rendered":"KXL oil spill in North Dakota"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About 9,120 barrels of oil leaked from the Keystone XL pipeline in North Dakota starting on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. The spill affected 22,500 square feet of wetlands. The leaking portion of the pipeline, which is operated by TC Energy, was shut down after the leak was discovered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

PART IV<\/p>\n

PIERRE \u2013 As tribal representatives and members took part in South Dakota\u2019s Keystone XL Pipeline hearings Oct. 29-31, a large oil spill into a wetland in neighboring North Dakota underscored testimony here against permitting the use of public water for construction of the private infrastructure.
\n\u201cWater that is contaminated by an oil leak or spill is damaging at best \u2013 and deadly at worst \u2013 to the health of people, livestock, wildlife, and fisheries,\u201d said Dakota Rural Action in response to the 383,000-gallon (9,000-barrel) spill of tar-sands crude oil, or diluted bitumen.
\nThe leaking dilbit, a toxic material, caused a shutdown of the Keystone I Pipeline after discovery of the damage Oct. 30, which affected wetlands near Edinburg, 75 miles northwest of Grand Forks, according to the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality.
\nDakota Rural Action objects to permitting Keystone I\u2019s sister KXL Pipeline, as do Mniwakan Nakicijinpi (Lone Eagle family youth pipeline fighters), the Yankton (Ihanktonwan), Rosebud, and Cheyenne River Sioux tribal governments, the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance, and individuals from Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska.
\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.
\nIn addition, separate individual well owners are seeking 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.
\nThe South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources, DENR, has recommended the state Water Management Board approve all the water rights applications for surface and underground water requested for the hazardous materials pipeline.
\nTC Energy Corp. operates the Keystone I Pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf. It spilled dilbit more than a dozen times in 2011, the first year of operations.
\n\u201cThis most recent spill brings stark clarity to the fact that, despite lack of consideration by DENR staff in their recommended approval of these permits, the quantity of water available to downstream users is highly dependent on the quality of that water,\u201d Dakota Rural Action said in a written statement:
\nIhanktonwan Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Kip Spotted Eagle testified against surface water permits for KXL construction, because \u201cthe river is a traditional cultural property.\u201d
\nIn Billings, Montana, on Oct. 29, pipeline fighters rallied in freezing 10-degree weather outside the venue of a U.S. State Department meeting about the latest Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) for the project.
\nThe rally, filled with participants carrying \u201cProtect Our Water\u201d and \u201cNo KXL\u201d signs, afforded speakers public exposure denied by the meeting format. Rally goers traveled on icy roads from across Lakota Territory.
\nThe DSEIS is crucial to the future of the Keystone XL Pipeline, since its finalization will influence permitting decisions from the Bureau of Land Management and the Army Corps of Engineers on a proposed Missouri River crossing of the pipeline.
\nThe proposed site of the pipeline crossing is below the spillway of the Ft. Peck Dam, which releases water at up to 65,000 cubic feet per second, creating potential for \u201cscour erosion\u201d of the riverbed that could lead in turn to exposure of the buried infrastructure, making it \u201chighly susceptible to leaks,\u201d the Western Organization of Resource Councils said in a media advisory.
\n\u201cI can tell you without a doubt that the Keystone XL Pipeline poses a direct threat to our water system,\u201d said Bill Whitehead, chair of the Assiniboine and Sioux Rural Water Supply System on the Ft. Peck Indian Reservation.
\n\u201cThe site where the KXL Pipeline would cross the Missouri River is directly upstream from the intake for our drinking water. This provides water not only to all of Fort Peck, but also to communities further east of us. As many as 30,000 people could have their drinking water affected by a pipeline spill,\u201d Whitehead said.
\n\u201cWe also have water intakes downstream from the proposed pipeline crossing that serve our irrigation system,\u201d he said. \u201cThis irrigation system is part of a 100-year agreement with the U.S. government. We depend on this water to grow our food and take care of livestock. Our very existence is dependent on this water.\u201d
\nAdding his opinion was Sen. Frank Smith of Poplar, Montana on the Ft. Peck Indian Reservation. \u201cWe know from history that the question is not if a pipeline spills but when,\u201d he said. \u201cThis tar sands oil is dangerous stuff that is impossible to clean up when it leaks,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cOur water system will be destroyed by a KXL spill,\u201d he predicted. \u201cWe refuse to sacrifice our water for the sake of a Canadian oil company.\u201d
\nIndigenous Environmental Network representative Kandi Mossett White complained that the meeting was the only opportunity for members of the public to comment on the subject, and tribal participants had to travel hundreds of miles from their reservations in North and South Dakota in order to attend.
\nOnly then did they find out their rally would be confined to a corral with a sign on it reading \u201cFree Speech Zone.\u201d She said the security measures for attending the event were drastic.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not even a hearing,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can go in and talk to a stenographer, who will then write down what you have to say, but you don\u2019t get an actual public audience.\u201d
\nAdherents of Bold Nebraska also had to travel hundreds of miles to attend the event. \u201cTribal nations, landowners and water protectors have stood together for 10 years fighting this black snake,\u201d they said.
\n\u201cTransCanada has trampled the sovereign rights of tribal nations and abused eminent domain for private gain to try to take pristine farmland against the wishes of families who have stewarded the land for generations,\u201d Bold Nebraska claimed.
\nTC Energy Corp. literature states that pipelines are the safest way to move dilbit from Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast and markets abroad.
\nBold Nebraska argues that if the line is finished through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, it will pump \u201cthe dirtiest tar-sands oil on the planet from where it\u2019s mined in Alberta, Canada, threatening the heartland of America and the precious Ogallala Aquifer along the way to a Saudi-owned refinery on the Gulf Coast, where it will be then shipped to overseas markets.\u201d
\nThe Keystone XL Pipeline \u201cwas a bad idea when it was proposed 11 years ago, and it remains a bad idea today,\u201d the grassroots organization contended in Billings.
\n\u201cTransCanada bullies landowners. TransCanada ignores meaningful consultation with tribal nations. TransCanada tries to buy off county board members. TransCanada minimizes the real risks to our water, and endangered species like the whooping crane and the burying beetle,\u201d it said.
\nTC Energy Corp. said only one landowner\u2019s property was impacted by the so-called Edinburg Incident \u201cand we will ensure we restore the property.\u201d
\nAt press time, the company said it was \u201ctoo soon to announce when the system will be fully operational again.\u201d It added, \u201cTC Energy is conducting a full investigation into the cause of the release. Our focus right now is containment, clean-up and the continued safety of the public and the environment.\u201d
\nKendall Mackey, 350.org<\/a> U.S. Campaigner for Keep It In The Ground, responded, saying: \u201cThis is not the first time that the Keystone Pipeline has leaked and it will not be the last. Disasters like these are among the many reasons we\u2019ve been fighting the Keystone XL for almost a decade, watching as each new spill from Keystone I and other major pipelines render ecosystems unlivable for thousands of people.
\n\u201cDespite what TC Energy says, we know that these spills are inevitable and demonstrate why we cannot allow Keystone XL to be completed.\u201d
\nRoads around the spill area were closed as a foul but harmless odor arose from the spill, consisting of enough liquid to fill half an Olympic-size swimming pool, according to the company.
\nMackey insisted: \u201cNot only must Keystone XL be stopped, but Congress must hold TC Energy accountable and demand that they pay for the care and repair needed for the devastating ecological destruction that communities are forced to endure. There is no such thing as a safe fossil fuel pipeline.\u201d
\nThe South Dakota Water Management Board set another permit hearing for Dec. 17-19. The State Department is accepting public comments until Nov. 18 on the new Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) for TransCanada\u2019s proposed Keystone XL pipeline project.<\/p>\n

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

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Visit Original Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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About 9,120 barrels of oil leaked from the Keystone XL pipeline in North Dakota starting on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019. The spill affected 22,500 square feet of wetlands. The leaking portion of the pipeline, which is operated by TC Energy, was shut down after the leak was discovered. PART IV <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
Shared by Native Sun News Today<\/a> November 6, 2019<\/p>\n

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