Gulf spill raises pipeline concerns

LINCOLN — The ever-widening oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has state lawmakers rethinking whether Nebraska is doing enough to protect the fragile Sand Hills and groundwater-rich Ogallala Aquifer from a planned crude-oil pipeline.

The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would pump 700,000 barrels of oil a day from the tar sand mines of western Canada.

It would cross 254 miles of Nebraska, including about 112 miles of the Sand Hills, intersecting with a pipeline near Kansas.

Proponents say the pipeline would provide an environmentally safe, politically stable and reliable source of crude oil and avoid risks exposed by the deep-sea drilling blowout in the Gulf.

Opponents worry that the Sand Hills region could host its own oil spill that could contaminate a precious deposit of groundwater.

Duane Hovorka, executive director of the Nebraska Wildlife Federation, said a small pipeline leak in the sparsely populated Sand Hills might go undetected for days and do major damage.

“There's a limit to how closely you can monitor that stuff,” Hovorka said. “You can pump a lot of oil into the aquifer before someone discovers it.”

Of key concern is TransCanada's application for a federal waiver to pump the pipeline oil at a higher pressure, using thinner pipe. The pipe could pump more oil and use less steel.

Cesar de Leon, former head of the nation's pipeline safety agency, said there's no question that using thinner pipe at higher pressure “lessens” the safety margin, although he said increased monitoring and maintenance could offset that risk.

Still, de Leon, now a private consultant based in Boerne, Texas, said using the higher pumping pressure “pushes the technological envelope,” which he likened to BP drilling deeper and deeper into the Gulf.

“It's running beyond what's been the norm,” he said of the pipeline project. “I think they'll be successful in getting it, but I certainly think you'd be safer running at a lower pressure.”

TransCanada, the Canadian company building the pipeline, has been safely using thinner pipe made of stronger steel for years in Canada, a spokesman said.

Jeff Rauh said the company plans several extra safeguards, including X-ray checks on every weld, more confirmation of steel integrity and coatings, and burying the pipeline 4 feet deep instead of the required 30 inches.

Historically, pipeline leaks are rare, small and localized, he said. The historic average is less than three barrels, or 126 gallons, he said. Leaks would be especially slow moving through the sands and groundwater of the Sand Hills, Rauh said.

Aerial surveillance of the pipeline would be done every two weeks. The pipe is designed to withstand puncturing by excavation equipment.

“This is a welded pipeline. It is designed for zero leakage,” he said. “However, if a leak occurs, we are absolutely ready to respond.”

A recent draft environmental impact statement on the project acknowledges that oil spills occur and that some could go undetected for “days or weeks.”

The draft statement also concludes Keystone XL would have “limited adverse environmental impacts” if the pipeline adheres to safety rules and laws.

The pipeline, scheduled to be built in 2011-12, would supplement a newly completed segment crossing eastern Nebraska.

The new pipeline would more than double the capacity to ship tar sand oil to U.S. refineries in Oklahoma and Texas.

Canada has become the nation's No. 1 supplier of oil, and the primary source has become oil extracted from vast tar sand deposits. One recent report says tar sand oil could provide 36 percent of U.S. needs by 2030.

Environmentalists decry the strip-minelike techniques and the water- and energy-intensive process needed to extract the oil.

“It's very environmentally damaging,” said Ken Winston, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club in Nebraska. “If another pipeline is built, it will just encourage more development of tar sands.”

The Sierra Club, Common Cause-Nebraska and the Wildlife Federation oppose Keystone XL, and newnebraska.net has launched an online petition drive against it.

TransCanada says if the pipeline isn't built, the United States would have to rely on unstable and often unfriendly nations in South America, Africa and the Middle East for its oil.

“We're creating a link to a growing and stable source of North American oil,” said Rauh, with TransCanada.

But the Gulf spill has changed things.

“It's just raised everyone's level of attention about what could possibly happen,” said State Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton, whose farmland is crossed by Keystone XL. “I have a lot of constituents in my district who are very concerned.”

A legislative bill introduced this spring would have required TransCanada to pay more taxes on the pipeline. That raised constitutional questions, and the measure died.

Questions about what power, if any, the state has in such pipeline projects led the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee to order an interim study headed by Dubas, committee vice chairman, and Sen. Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids.

In general, the U.S. Department of Transportation oversees pipelines that cross state lines. Because Keystone XL is Canada-based, the State Department also has jurisdiction.

Dubas said the interim study will sort out whether Nebraska has a role.

“We sit on top of the largest aquifer in the world,” she said. “We can't be too cautious when we're talking about protecting our water resources.”

South Dakota held public hearings on the pipeline siting, but an official there acknowledged that the feds handle safety issues.

Sen. Deb Fischer of Valentine, whose district is also crossed by the pipeline, said she wished the route had avoided the Sand Hills, where the water table sometimes exceeds ground level.

But that probably would have made the pipeline cost prohibitive, said Heidi Tillquist, a Fort Collins, Colo., environmental toxicologist hired by TransCanada. The “most direct” route is the best, she said.

Major pipeline oil leaks, Tillquist added, are quite rare. One calculation, she said, put the chance of a leak at once every 7,400 years per mile of pipeline.

The application to pump pipeline oil at a higher pressure using thinner pipe was raised repeatedly during State Department hearings last month in Fairbury, York and Atkinson.

Rauh said the thinner pipe (0.465 of an inch versus 0.515) and higher pressure (80 percent of design strength versus 72 percent) have been used safely in Canada and other countries for years.

TransCanada expects a response to its application for the proposed pipeline and waiver by the end of the year.

The higher pumping pressure was approved for the 30-inch Keystone Pipeline, the first time that had been done. That pipeline is expected to go online later this year. The larger Keystone XL would first be used in 2013.

About $20 million a year in additional property taxes would be paid initially, then decrease, ending after 15 years. Overall, 21 permanent jobs would be created in Nebraska. Keystone's U.S. headquarters would be in Omaha.

State Sen. Chris Langemeier of Schuyler, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said he is convinced the newest pipeline can be safely operated, although he expressed concern about the federal government's ability to regulate it.

He noted that the first Keystone Pipeline goes under the Platte River, a major drinking water source for both Omaha and Lincoln.

But some environmentalists say the Gulf tragedy should put everyone on guard about “state-of-the-art” efforts to extract and move oil.

“If this aquifer is lost, that's a heck of a lot of water to lose,” said Charlotte Manton of Lincoln, a board member of Common Cause.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

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