On April 18, the owner of the
proposed 1,700 mile, $7 billion Keystone XL crude oil pipeline between Alberta
and Texas proposed a series of new routings across Nebraska, all of which would
bypass the environmentally sensitive Sandhills region which overlies the
Ogallalla aquifer supplying drinking and irrigation water to eight states.
Earlier last week, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman signed a bill allowing that
state’s relevant agencies to review the proposed pipeline’s routing, regardless
of federal action or inaction on permits for the project.
President Obama has already
directed the responsible federal agencies to fast track the 485 mile southern
segment of the new pipeline, from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast. Approval
of the routing and permits for construction of the northern segment has been
delayed because of concern over the possibility of massive groundwater
pollution in the eight midwestern states supplied by the Ogallalla aquifer
should the pipeline be buried in the Sandhills, and spring a leak there. The proposed
new Nebraska routes are designed to overcome this particular objection to
construction of the entire project.
