September 20th, 2012 – Nebraska – Though TransCanada has made some changes to the pipeline route in Nebraska, the fact remains that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline still passes through sandy soil and the Ogallala Aquifer—the country’s largest source of freshwater that provides drinking water and irrigation for millions of Americans. The York News Times, the only newspaper on the pipeline route, expresses these serious concerns in an editorial today.
From the York News Times:
“You can’t stand on the South Rim of the aquifer like you can the Grand Canyon. You can’t climb it and marvel at the views like you can Pikes Peak.
“You can’t swim in it, sail on it, or take family photos of it, but it is there, a few feet under yours, and without question it is one of the world’s most precious natural wonders.
“If you were to listen to TransCanada you would believe the “safest pipe ever to be built” presents no harm. Folks, this pipe is no safer than its half-inch steel casing, no safer than the weld that holds it in place, no safer than the person sitting in the control booth in Alberta, Canada, no safer than the field hand excavating some farm ground or digging a drainage ditch, no safer than the insufficient practices of the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA).
“You don’t want a major spill, I don’t want a major spill, and for sure TransCanada doesn’t want a major spill. But things do happen.
“This poisonous blend of toxic chemicals in a pipe pressurized to over a thousand pounds per square inch is very hard to keep in that pipe. You have cracks, corrosion, floods, erosion, insufficient regulations and oversight. Accidents do happen.
“We hope every single weld and joint holds for the 50 years this poison is planned to run through over 200 miles of Nebraskan’s water supply. We hope PHMSA protects us like they are supposed to and not like those poor folks in Michigan.
“I can tell you this. I wouldn’t bet my future on hope. I wouldn’t bet our drinking water on hope. I am not willing to bet the world’s greatest body of underground fresh water, water that is needed by virtually every person and every farm in our county, on hope.
“And I sure wouldn’t bet our future on a foreign corporation, hell-bent on generating corporate profits by piping toxic diluted bitumen through our county so it can be exported to other countries.
“Right now it appears Heineman and all five of our federal representatives in Washington consider the risk to their political futures more important than the risk to Nebraska’s water supplies and to the heath of Nebraska citizens.
“So, I hope… you will join me, and the hundreds of others along the disaster route, who have written, pleaded if you will, to our local, state and federal leaders.
“Tell them TransCanada can move the pipe every week until the cows come home, but until it is clear of the Ogallala Aquifer the brave people in Nebraska, who are more concerned about our future than foreign corporation’s profits, will fight them very inch of the way."
###
If you would rather not receive future communications from BOLD Nebraska, let us know by clicking here.
BOLD Nebraska, ., Lincoln, DC 68508 United States