SD Ranchers Latest Group to Oppose Planned Oil Pipeline
This sign posted in South Dakota displays some landowners’ opposition to the Keystone pipeline. (image: keloland.com)
In the ongoing saga of the TransCanada Keystone pipeline, ranchers who live along the pipeline’s route in western South Dakota voiced concerns about oil spills and damage to their land, water, and roads, reports the Associated Press. The proposed pipeline would deliver up to 900,000 barrels a day of crude oil from the tar sands near Hardisty, Alberta to Gulf Coast terminals and refineries in Texas.
More than 50 landowners and others appeared at a public hearing Tuesday night about the 313-mile Keystone pipeline. The meeting was organized by the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, which is holding a formal hearing this week on TransCanada Keystone’s application for a construction permit.
According to landowner Dwayne Vig of Mud Butte, TransCanada Keystone should not be trusted because it had already violated some agreements. Vig said he agreed to allow a company agent to conduct a survey on his land, and a company vehicle drove in the wrong place, which he said was trespassing.
“We live on trust and handshakes. That’s what concerns us,” Vig told the commission.
Robert Jones, a TransCanada vice president responsible for the Keystone XL project, said the contractor who had trespassed was no longer with the company.
“Trespassing is absolutely not acceptable,” Jones said. “I do understand Mr. Vig’s frustration and I do apologize.”
The pipeline is due to enter South Dakota from Montana in Harding County and run through Butte, Perkins, Meade, Pennington, Haakon, Jones, Lyman and Tripp counties before entering Nebraska.
