North Dakota state regulators say that the Keystone Pipeline spilled upwards of 383,000 gallons of crude oil into about half an acre of rural North Dakota wetlands this past week, before being shut off. The New York Times reports that beginning on Tuesday, the crude oil leaked into an unpopulated wetland area, and no drinking water was affected. However, as seemingly all oil spills are initially underreported, it remains to be seen what the actual environmental impact will be.
The spill took place just hours after the U.S. Department of State held its only meeting at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center in Billings, Montana, to “solicit” comments and questions for the “Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Project” it released this past month. Protestors and activists descended on the place, even though the State Department clearly tried their darndest to keep the people, specifically Native communities who are almost always the most directly impacted by resource grabs, from attending.
“We weren’t even considered or given a hearing about this dangerous project,” said state legislative senator Frank Smith, D-Poplar, who represents Fort Peck Reservation. “I had to drive almost five hours and 300 miles to be here today. I didn’t see why the department organized this meeting so far away and not in our community.”
Others noted that water treatment facilities in the proposed areas are not equipped to handle problems that could arise if more “leaks” from the pipeline occur. Associate director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Dirty Fuels Initiative Catherine Collentine told Inside Climate News that these kind of leaks are "something that we need to be looking very closely at given the number of water crossings and the route of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline."
Inside Climate News also points out that this pipeline has a long history of spills that have many concerned, as it is not an old piece of infrastructure.
Our current administration has made it clear that it wants to get the pipeline through, regardless of the science or engineering questions brought up by experts. So far, the only thing holding the Keystone Pipeline from covering anywhere they want has been the courts.
The comment period for the proposed pipeline changes and the revised impact statement will continue until Nov. 18. State Department spokesman James Dewey told NPR that they had not received as many comments as they had expected and were hoping to get more. People can send their comments at www.regulations.gov and find mailing information here.
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