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Gulf Oil Spill Creates Pipeline Concerns
News Articles | KPTM | Todd Unger | June 30, 2010
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OMAHA (KPTM)- On the same day two attack ads are being released criticizing Nebraska Senators Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns for their supposed ties to 'big oil,' some local groups are calling on the senators to help stop a proposed pipeline expansion in the state.
The Green Omaha Coalition, a loose group comprised of members from organizations like the progressive BOLD Nebraska movement, want Nelson and Johanns to help stop expansion of the Keystone XL Pipeline on fears it could spring a leak that devastates the Nebraska Sandhills region.
“It’s not if a leak happens, it’s when. We know they happen,” says BOLD Nebraska official Jane Fleming Kleeb.
Wednesday night, Kleeb and close to 50 others gathered at the W. Dale Clark Library in downtown Omaha to discuss the pipeline expansion. Currently, a pipeline already extends from Canada down through Nebraska and a number of other Midwest states. But the expansion would carry sand tar oil through a new pipeline to be constructed in the Sandhills, a geologically fragile area that has the Ogallala Aquifer underneath it.
“If something like that [a leak] happened here, it’d be really disastrous considering a lot of our economy is based on farming and we have such clear water,” says Don Muhr, one of dozens who is writing a letter to the senators to oppose the project.
A recent U.S. Geological Survey cited in the Wednesday meeting points out that nearly 85 percent of Nebraskans get their drinking water from the Ogallala Aquifer. A notable percentage of water is also used for irrigation purposes.
TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline expansion, has previously said the chances of a leak are low. If it were to happen, the company has said it could prove a quick fix. The project has gotten some support from communities hoping it could bring hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs to Nebraska.
Sen. Johanns’ office told FOX 42 in a statement “Nebraskans are raising valid questions and demanding the protection of the Ogallala Aquifer.” Johanns says he also has concerns about oversight of the project through the State Department.
Nelson’s office says the senator hasn’t yet made up his mind on whether to support it or not. He encourages Nebraskans to speak out about the issue, though, according to spokesperson Jim Fagin.
Whether the project gets the green light will ultimately lie with the State Department. It would issue the permit authorizing the pipeline expansion because it would extend through international borders.
Kleeb says her organization would also like the Unicameral to explore the issue more closely, saying there needs to be more state oversight into what is happening.
Tagged with: keystone xl, pipeline, nebraska, secretary of state, green omaha coalition
