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Nebraska environmental agency sends Keystone report to governor

By   /   January 4, 2013  /   11 Comments

By Deena Winter | Nebraska Watchdog

Now that the environmental review of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route through Nebraska is complete, the governor will decide whether to approve or deny it. Courtesy photo.

LINCOLN — The reroute of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline “could have minimal environmental impacts in Nebraska,” according to Nebraska’s environmental regulatory agency.

Gov. Dave Heineman now has 30 days to review the 2,000-page report and tell the U.S. State Department.

The agency made no recommendation on whether the governor should approve or deny the project, designed to carry oil from Canada to Texas, including a new 195-mile route through Nebraska.

“I will now carefully review this report over the next several weeks,” Heineman said in a press release.

The State Department is simultaneously working on its own environmental review of the proposed pipeline, which is expected to be released soon.

The 36-inch-wide pipeline would pass through nine Nebraska counties, beginning a mile south of the South Dakota border in Keya Paha County and ending in northwest York County, where it would join with the portion of Keystone XL already approved for construction.

The state Department of Environmental Quality was charged with analyzing the environmental, economic, social, and other impacts of the pipeline, and found that the new route avoids the ecologically fragile Sandhills but still crosses portions of the Ogallala Aquifer and areas with fragile soils. In those areas of northern Nebraska where the soil is particularly susceptible to erosion, the pipeline company, TransCanada, would use “special procedures” to build the pipeline.

To improve pipeline safety, TransCanada agreed to 57 “special conditions” governing the pipeline’s construction, operation and maintenance. Those would be enforced by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The DEQ said in the event of an oil spill, the impact on the aquifer “should be localized” and TransCanada would have to pay for cleanup. TransCanada agreed to carry at least $200 million in liability insurance to cover “sudden and accidental pollution incidents from Keystone XL Pipeline in Nebraska.”

TransCanada first applied for a federal permit to build the pipeline in 2008, but ran into stiff opposition in Nebraska. In late 2011, TransCanada agreed to reroute the pipeline around the Sandhills, but the project still faces considerable opposition in the state, where about 800 people showed up for the final DEQ public hearing on the project in December.

The report also offered updated estimates of the pipeline’s impact on the state economy:

• Construction of the pipeline would create $418 million in economic benefits and support up to 4,560 new or existing jobs in Nebraska.

• Construction workers would spend about $68 million, which would multiply through the economy to generate about $98 million in new economic activity.

• TransCanada would spent about $476 million on construction activities and employ about 270 Nebraska workers during construction.

• The project would generate $16.5 million in use taxes from pipeline construction materials.

• In its first full year of valuation, the project would produce between $11 million and $13 million in local property tax revenue.

The primary opposition has been organized by Bold Nebraska, which said today the DEQ report failed to address its concerns and if the governor approves the route, TransCanada will have immediate authority to condemn land without a federal permit.

Bold Nebraska continued to pressure the governor to stand by his earlier concerns about the pipeline crossing the Ogallala Aquifer, and deny the permit. Bold Nebraska is also part of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law giving the governor authority to approve the pipeline.

Bold Nebraska also disagreed with the DEQ’s conclusion that any oil spill would likely be local, not regional. But DEQ Director Mike Linder said groundwater modeling was done, and depending on how long a leak lasts, usually groundwater moves slowly – about 300 feet per year.

“The concept that a large region would be quickly contaminated is not what we found,” Linder said.

Other tidbits in the DEQ report:

• TransCanada plans to build a temporary construction camp for about 900 construction workers in northern Holt County.

• TransCanada expects the pipeline to operate for about 50 years.

• TransCanada conducted a simulated spill response exercise in November on the Keystone One pipeline, with DEQ randomly selecting the spill location. TransCanada identified the material and transmitted information about it within 17 minutes.

Contact Deena Winter at deena@nebraskawatchdog.org.

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Deena Winter

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    The DEQ report is 2000 pages of sham! TransCanda’s answers to concerns and issues raised were nothing more than “trust us” – coming from a corporation that has been lying like a two-bit Snake Oil Salesmen from the git-go. Those “57 Special conditions” are B.S., they are doing nothing more than repeating what is already Federal Regulation. HDR was NOT an impartial third party tasked to write the review for DEQ (which by the way cost $5.5 MILLION taxpayer dollars, NOT the $2 Million as set out in LB1165), as HDR LIED to DEQ when they said they had no financial ties to TransCanada. In FACT, HDR was working on a project for a joint TransCanada/ExonnMobil venture at the same time they were working on the alternate route review. In fact, (if they haven’t already pulled it down from their web site) HDR’s mission statement reads that they are in business to “make the process of getting environmental permit approval for their clients as smooth and conflict free as possible” (paraphrased) – in other words, HDR’s goal is to walk the process along for the benefit of pipeline companies, NOT an honest, objective analysis of ALL environmental risks.

    HDR’s review completely ignores the fact that 10.8 miles of the proposed route of the KXL will be buried COMPLETELY within the Ogallala Aquifer and that for another 11.5 miles the KXL will be partially buried within the Ogallala Aquifer. Furthermore, their review completely ignores the composition of the dilbit to be carried in the proposed KXL, instead treating it as light crude and standard heavy crude PER DATA SUPPLIED BY TRANSCANADA, in fact, the entire report relies on TRANSCANADA, HDR’s CUSTOMER, for ALL data concerning the contents, and completely IGNORES the FACTS established by the 1.2 million gallon Enbridge 6B Tarsands pipeline spill in Michigan in 2010 as to the composition and inability to clean up dilbit.

    Dilbit is up to 30% SOLVENTS, mainly Benzene, Toluene and Xylene by content, NONE of those three organic solvents can be easily or readily removed from water, yet in their “environmental review” HDR FAILS to address the clean up or remediation of those chemicals from the Aquifer, BECAUSE THE TECHNOLOGY AND METHODS DO NOT EXIST!!

    What we have here, in legislation hand-crafted by TransCanada and presented in session by their proxies, is a conflict of interest as great as the CardnoEntrix-TransCanada-State Department fiasco that got the Presidential Permit denied in the first place.

    The State Agencies MOST qualified to do an environmental assessment of the KXL were the ones INTENTIONALLY excluded from doing so by LB1165, while the agency LEAST qualified was named the sole agency. DEQ is NOT qualified to do this assessment and never has been, their ONLY role is ENFORCEMENT of current laws. This review should have been done by the Nebraska Geologic Survey, Dept. of Natural Resources and the University of Nebraska’s Geology and Soil Sciences Departments – ALL of whom have extensive expertise in writing EIS’s and are PUBLIC, IMPARTIAL entities, NOT a private, for profit entity with a long-running financial interest with the entity being “reviewed”.

    Become a REAL investigative reporter, Deena, and stop repeating TransCanada’s talking points and press releases as “real” reporting.

  • UncaDoug

    Notwithstanding local environmental pollution and degradation in Nebraska, 50 years of life at something like a million barrels of diluted bitumen (“dilbit”) per day is immoral. Look, a little unsophisticated hand-waving gets me to 18-billion barrels of “dilbit” transported to Gulf refineries for refining and export as liquid fuels and other products. Burning hydrocarbon fuels was necessary during the building of our nation and world economies, but not now at a time in human history when we really must start reducing and abandoning the burning of carbon-based fuels. This pipeline locks humanity into a guaranteed suicide and murder. Whoever agrees to allow this pipeline to be constructed will be pulling the trigger of virtually 7 billion guns held at the heads of 7 billion innocent people as well as themselves. Aside from the perps, who deserves this?

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    Ask South Dakota Counties about the promise of tax revenue from the Keystone I TransCanada made, those estimates were all 50-70% high of actual receipts, as TransCanada has used every loophole they could to lower the valuation of the Key I to pay the minimum amount of taxes on it. Here in Nebraska, with depreciation schedules, TransCanada will be paying annually decreasing taxes that will stop after 15 years.

    TransCanada has consistently exaggerated the numbers of workers to be employed in building the pipeline – and still is. The Keystone I employed only 250 workers here in Nebraska at its height of construction – and the vast majority of those were skilled pipeline workers from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, NOT Nebraska. The few Nebraska workers hired were menial manual labor workers – road flag crew, landscaping, etc. Barely a dozen Nebraska welders were hired to work on the pipeline – the skilled labor was from contractors in the oil pipeline states listed above.

    The Keystone I added NOWHERE near the revenue and jobs projected for the KXL, more smoke up Nebraska’s ass if any thinking person actually believes that somehow a pipe 6″ larger in diameter is suddenly going to cost TransCanada triple to install in taxes, manpower and support than the one installed in 2009-10 did.

    TransCanada’s “state of the art” leak detection system isn’t. I meets the bare requirements of Federal Regulations. There are FAR more accurate systems available currently on the market, but TC is too cheap to use them. The leak in North Dakota that forced the Feds to shut down the Key I in 2011spewed over 6,000 gallons of Tarsands crude 60′ into the air, was NOT detected by their sensor system, was reported by a farmer who saw the plume shooting into the air and who argued with the response center technicians who said the Key I “was not leaking because our instruments say it isn’t”. It took 45 minutes to shut the emergency valves and 6 1/2 HOURS for a response team to arrive.

    The DEQ/TransCanada “response” drill was a staged sham, as the “material” “spilled” was NOT dilbit (Tarsands crude) but “simulated petroleum product” and was NOT detected by the sensor system but was human reported as part of the “simulation”. Of COURSE responce was 17 minutes, not the HOURS of response time that necessitated the Feds shutting down the Key I in 2011 after it 14TH LEAK EVENT!!

    HDR’s model for contamination spread in the Ogallala Aquifer FAILED to account for the accelerated transmission rates of the contaminated groundwater due to the draw effects of center pivot irrigation – which has been verified at up to 5 MILES in an HOUR in portions of Holt and Rock Counties where the pipeline will lie IN the Ogallala Aquifer! Instead, HDR modeled STATIC movement due to the natural flow of the groundwater in areas OTHER than Holt and Rock Counties portion of the Ogallala.

  • NebraskaTPP

    One item about the pipeline. Certain organizations claimed that the pipeline was endorsed by the Tea Party. It was not! The largest Tea Party organization, along with some other conservative organizations were never contacted by TransCanada. We contacted the Unicameral and made sure that this endorsement was retracted. There were certain aspects of this pipeline that we took issue with. We were concerned that it might end up being a Republican version of Solyndra, until that issue was settled, then we could not offer a real endorsement for the operation..

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    Now you’re talking semantics. Your Tea Party is superfluous. The only Tea Party that matters in Nebraska politics (or Nationally for that matter) is the Koch-funded, Americans For Prosperity-supported astroturf Tea Party, and THEY came out in support of the KXL from the start, just like the good little fascist puppets they are.

  • OliviaT

    The map shown is extremely misleading, as it is a map that doesn’t follow other maps of the same area, and does not show the aquifer or depth-to-water issues at all.

    “…could have minimal environmental impacts…” OR it could have very major environmental impacts. This is much like the New Year’s resolution saying if you sign up, you can have weight loss “UP TO” x-number of pounds in a given time, but no promises there. If you lose one ounce, that = “up to”… That is a disingenuous statement by DEQ.

    “The DEQ said in the event of an oil spill, the impact on the aquifer “should be localized”… Perhaps, but does that mean it WILL BE localized? No way to tell until AFTER it occurs; and it will. We can be assured of this because of that old adage: The best test of future performance is the past experience and history. And so far, past performance is rather dismal, for both TC and Enbridge.

    TC is saying they’ll have liability insurance of an amount that is a slap in the face to Nebraskans in the event of “sudden and accidental pollution”. Does that mean that when the pipe has a slow and small, continuous leak of up to 1.5-2% of its contents at any given time in any given area, that doesn’t count and won’t be covered under that liability??? (That wouldn’t be “sudden” or “accidental” since they know it can/will happen, as noted in their own documents.) We know that after 2.5 yrs, in open water, not in an underground aquifer, the Kalamazoo, MI spill is still problematic, spurring the EPA to step in once again, and to admit that they have no idea how to handle continued cleanup. And that is, so far, an $800M project and still counting. Hmmm…

    Where did all the noted figures come from? Who did new studies of this route, all the various types of impacts, the economy, health risk assessments, …??? I believe no health risk assessments have ever been considered. I know that Jim Bunstock, of NDEQ, stated earlier in one of the open houses they held, that TransCanada would be providing NDEQ with much of the needed study information. Hmmm…isn’t that letting the fox right into the henhouse? How is that unbiased and why should this make us feel good about this project? It shouldn’t. Too much is left unstudied, unspoken, and very risky.

    Let’s hope our Gov. H will keep his word, as expressed to the President of the United States:

    August 31, 2011

    Dear President Obama and Secretary Clinton:

    I am writing to you today regarding a very important issue to the State
    of Nebraska and to our citizens – the Keystone XL Pipeline. I am opposed to the proposed route of this pipeline.

    The Final Environmental Impact Statement compares a potential spill in the Sand Hills region to a1979 Bemidji, Minn., spill and concludes that “the impacts to shallow groundwater from a spill of a similar volume in the Sand Hills region would affect a limited area of the aquifer around the spill site.”

    I disagree with this analysis, and I believe that the pipeline should not cross a substantial portion of the Ogallala Aquifer.

    Of the current proposed route, 254 miles of the pipeline would come
    through Nebraska and be situated directly over the Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer provides water to farmers and ranchers of Nebraska to raise livestock and grow crops.

    Nebraska has 92,685 registered, active irrigation wells supplying water to over 8.5 million acres of harvested cropland and pasture. Forty-six percent of the total cropland harvested during 2007 was irrigated.

    Maintaining and protecting Nebraska’s water supply is very important to me and the residents of Nebraska. This resource is the lifeblood of Nebraska’s agriculture industry.

    Cash receipts from farm markets contribute over $17 billion to Nebraska’s economy annually. I am concerned that the proposed pipeline will potentially have detrimental effects on this valuable natural resource and Nebraska’s economy.

    I want to emphasize that I am not opposed to pipelines. We already have hundreds of them in our state. I am opposed to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline route because it is directly over the Ogallala Aquifer.

    Therefore, I am asking you to disapprove TransCanada’s pending permit request. Do not allow TransCanada to build a pipeline over the Ogallala Aquifer and risk the potential damage to Nebraska’s water.

    Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

    Sincerely,

    Dave Heineman,

    Governor

  • BlueReview
  • http://www.facebook.com/joan.bale.96 Joan Bale

    Thank you WFL and the others below who have pointed out the importance of stoping TransCanada’s pipeline over Nebraska/s Aquifer. I just want to add to your comments that I went back to Michigan last October and the Kalamazoo River still is not cleaned up from the tarsand spill. They, KXL don’t know what to do as the “oil sinks ” to the bottom and is impossible to clean up.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ricky.fulton Ricky Fulton

    That pipeline will never be built because the people do not want it

  • Jazzee

    wow fascist puppets as in move on and media matters? are they fascist too?

  • ProgressiveOasis

    Let’s see…you tree huggers still want to drive cars, eat fresh food delivered daily by trucks to the local grocery, still want to heat & cool your homes, still want to bathe in hot water, still want to have lights at night and still want to power the very computers you use to post your idiotic comments. Where is all that energy going to come from and at what cost??? Wind, solar, biofuels, etc. cannot compete with fossil fuels without massive taxpayer funded support. They don’t scale easily nor are they 24x7x365 sources. Yet you rail against the very energy sources that power all economic activity now and into the foreseeable future. There are already thousands of miles of pipelines under NE and there have been for decades. Until you clowns start living like the Amish, your complaining falls upon deaf ears and always will. Just keep bitching about the Keystone XL project…please. I’ve already bought stock in the Canadian pipeline company that has filed to build an all-Canada pipeline to move the tarsands oil to the Pacific for 100% export. Again, please keep bitching so I can make even more money from fools like you.