Big Oil is nurturing a nightmare that could poison the drinking water for a good hunk of the Midwest.
TransCanada wants to lay a 2,000-mile pipeline carrying hot, tar-soaked sand from Canada to refineries in Texas. The oil industry is pouring millions into its effort (thus far successful) to push aside any serious federal study of possible consequences. Meanwhile, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other watchdog groups are appealing for pocket-change from donors to try to fight back.
The tar sands lie under the ancient woodlands of northern Canada. These boreal forests, summer home to 40 percent of America's “backyard birds,” are being torn up and strip-mined for the sludge that is shipped to nearby refineries. The industry wants to double production and pump the sludge through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma en route to Texas. That puts it through the heart of the Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground source of fresh water that nourishes all or parts of 11 states.
Oh, but the pipeline — Keystone XL — will be safe, the industry says. Meanwhile, the affected areas in states further East, on the path of Keystone One, remember only too well the 12 ruptures that “safe” pipeline experienced last year.
In a half-page ad in the Aug. 31 Register, Big Oil claims the sludge “could support 600,000 American jobs” 25 years from now. That's “could,” as in maybe. That's “support,” not create — and “support” could include whatever jobs one wants to toss into the count.
What else it “could” do, of course, is disrupt or poison the Midwest's water supply.
The governor of Nebraska, Republican Dave Heineman, has already asked the State Department to deny the federal permit needed to lay the pipe across the U.S. border, pointing out that the Ogallala Aquifer is the “lifeblood of Nebraska's agricultural economy.” It is also the source of drinking water for 2 million Americans.
What the sludge pipeline would be certain to do is cost billions, divert resources from non-toxic energy sources, and drastically reduce songbird and other wildlife populations. And if history is any guide, it's almost certain to spill its cargo of poison.
Some time ago, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both promised a responsible scientific study. That could take time, and the administration now says it will decide by the end of the year. As the NRDC said, “It's beginning to look like the fix is in.”
— Bill Leonard, Des Moines