« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

A Tale of Two Pipelines

By: Steve Maley (Diary)  |  November 15th, 2011 at 11:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

One of the reasons we’re supposed to be wary of the Keystone XL Pipeline is its alleged threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, the water source for much of the Great Plains. From Wikipedia:

The depth of the water below the surface of the land ranges from almost 400 feet (122 m) in parts of the north [e.g., Nebraska - Ed.] to between 100 to 200 feet (30 to 61 m) throughout much of the south. Present-day recharge of the aquifer with fresh water occurs at an exceedingly slow rate suggesting that much of the water in its pore spaces is paleowater, dating back to the last ice age and probably earlier. Withdrawals from the Ogallala are in essence mining ancient water. [Emphasis added.]

The pipeline would be separated by almost 400 vertical feet from the aquifer, which is not actively recharged. That makes it extremely unlikely that even a large pipeline leak would contaminate water supplies.

In an attempt to mollify environmental concerns,

The builders of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline agreed Monday to reroute it around Nebraska’s ecologically fragile Sandhills in the hope the move would shorten any delay in the project, which has posed political complications for the Obama administration.

President Obama is caught between key constituencies. Labor unions want the jobs the pipeline would bring. Environmentalists are opposed to any large scale project, especially one that promotes fossil fuel development.

So he took the bold, decisive approach. He postponed any pipeline decision until after the 2012 election.

All of which recalls another era, and another pipeline in an environmentally sensitive area.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) (corrected)

TAPS was built in just over two years in response to the first Arab Oil Embargo. The first barrel was pumped in June 1977.

Cumulative throughput of TAPS is over 16 billion barrels. Sixteen billion domestic barrels, which have built Alaska’s economy, generated jobs and taxes, and displaced 16,000 supertankers of foreign oil.

TAPS is 48 inches across and 800 miles long. It crosses three major mountain ranges and 30 rivers and streams. It was built with private funds: $8 billion, back when $1 billion was considered real money.

TAPS has sustained two large leaks during its 34 years of operation. Both were about 6,000 barrels in volume. One was caused by a saboteur with a high powered rifle. (TAPS is elevated above ground because of freezing ground conditions. Keystone XL would be buried.)

Let’s recall that the lions of the Democratic Party, including Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden, opposed building TAPS. Only the vote of VP Spiro Agnew broke a Senate deadlock to allow pipeline construction to proceed.

The same factions that opposed TAPS then are opposed to Keystone XL now. Most of their dire warnings about the impact of TAPS on Alaska’s pristine wilderness environment were wrong. The caribou are doing fine.

The Obama Administration has dithered on the Keystone XL for a longer period of time than it took to build TAPS.

Cross-posted at stevemaley.com.


COMMENTS

POSTING RULES  |  LOGIN TO COMMENT  |  REGISTER TODAY
  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    I only took basic chemistry but isn’t petroleum lighter than water? so any small layer of water in between the ground and the aquifer would be an impenetrable barrier is that not right?

    Not sure. At any rate, oil close to the surface will soon dissipate and be eaten by microbes.

    • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

      I think they water table in the aquifer is being drawn down. I would think that to be capable of any damage it would have to be near a well.

    • quad4x4

      Water and Oil: For Eons the tar sands leak into the Athabaska (sp) river daily as tar strands and the Tar floats to the Bering sea (northward, mine you). By the way 1 cu. yd of tar sand equals 1 barrel of oil and 1.5 cy of loose sand. It is like roadbed material in some cases, after 4000 vertical feet of ice compressed it. Some areas are 180 feet thick. Perhaps like the water mentioned. Wacky people use any excuse to delay or obviscate any thing “they” dislike.

  • adair

    Or is it Canada’s government and ours cooperating? (choke, guffaw, splutter)

    We can only pray that their threat to reroute the pipeline to accommodate China is empty but effective to change The One’s mind. Or make it up.

    Between Keystone and the embargo on our own Gulf product, it’s hard to keep saying, “… doesn’t understand how the American economy is supposed to work ….” when it’s pretty clear he is doing his utmost to keep it from working at all.

    Better to be a one-termer than to bring the country back to evil prosperity.

    • Adjoran

      As much as he is willing to put aside any positive action to ensure his reelection, he is willing to risk his reelection to prevent American success.

      The next generation will spit on the ground at the mention of his foul name.

      • texasjohn

        nt

        • pttx333

          z

    • factnotrhetoric

      This has nothing to do with the environment or creating jobs.

      Obama would never let gulf oil or Canadian oil be allowed to compete with Saudi Arabia and Obama’s Muslim Brotherhood Oil. Obama prefers to have Saudi Oil shipped across Canada’s pristine waters from the King of Saudi Arabia.

      http://www.torontosun.com/2011/11/14/obama-prefers-saudi-conflict-oil

      Obama would never allow American oil to compete with Saudi Oil so has stopped oil drilling in the US but subsidized the same drilling in Brazil, in Columbia and in Mexico with American Tax dollars to be able to take America’s oil and sell it overseas with the exact same drilling and the exact same risks to the environment.

      No this is not about the environment or jobs, this is about protecting the market for the Saudi oil that is running out.

      D’Souza talked about this at the the Defending the American Dream summit:

      http://site.defendingthedream.org/?page_id=428

  • celador2

    I support clean, safe environmentally sound mines and pipelines. The only way we are going to develop natual resources inside US is to elect a Republican president.

    I do not mean to imply a Republican will develop natural resources always or push them through, Bush said OK when brother Jeb said no to offshore drilling in Gulf.

    But the caving at the top has got to stop.

  • hwgood

    Well, it’s not official yet, but with the would-be builders suggesting a move, the protestors have the taste of blood in their mouths and will not quit until the pipeline project is dead.
    By the time any possible Conservative could get into the Oval Office to change things the Chinese will be buying the oil and unwilling to change the contract.

    • renl57

      …then nobody will be buying that oil.

      McKibben and the other enviros have already made it clear that they plan to go to Canada and lobby and demonstrate there to stop the oil from ever being taken out of the ground.

      They don’t want the oil sold to someone other than America. They don’t want the oil used at all. And that’s what they’re going to push for next. This fight over Keystone in Nebraska was just a dress rehearsal for the real fight: Stop all new oil production in North America.

      • Raven

        The Canadians want to drill and sell the oil. They have already made the decision to do so.
        The protestors may be able to stop America from buying it, but they won’t stop Canada from selling it.

        • renl57

          VANCOUVER – Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s vow to step up efforts to sell Canadian oil to Asia following the Obama administration’s decision to delay the Keystone XL pipeline has placed British Columbia at ground zero of the battle over Alberta oilsands bitumen.

          Enbridge’s $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline proposal across northern B. C. from Alberta to Kitimat is the next alternative for developing a market for the oilsands and for promoting a Canadian strategy of diversifying away from the U.S. marketplace.

          But Northern Gateway is opposed by at least 50 first nations along the pipeline corridor and on the B.C. coast and it is also the next target for the North American environmental movement that so successfully delayed the Keystone pipeline from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

          “We see it as a very high-risk and high-profile project,” Susan Casey- Lefkowitz, of Washington DC-based Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview.

          She said NRDC, which was one of the lead environmental groups in the fight over the Keystone pipeline, has already decided to make Northern Gateway the focus of its next big campaign

          “We did an alert to our members just two weeks ago and almost 60,000 NRDC members and supporters sent 60,000 emails to Premier (Christy) Clark asking that she take a strong stand against the Northern Gateway pipeline.”
          . . . .
          Hoberg said that benefits for B.C. of Northern Gateway proposal would be “relatively minimal.”

          “There would be some construction jobs in the short term,” he said. “There would be some long-term jobs at the facility in Kitimat but there aren’t that many of them.

          “But the risks to British Columbia are enormous, given the rivers that the pipeline will have to cross that are cherished salmon streams, and the tanker risk once they leave the port of Kitimat.”

          [Univ. of BC professor] Hoberg sees first nations opposition as the biggest obstacle to Northern Gateway.

          “If the Coastal first nations continue to adamantly say no, how can the government of Canada accommodate that interest and still approve the pipeline? I think it’s a very difficult issue. If first nations can’t be brought onside, it’s going to be very difficult for this pipeline to go forward.”

          First nations have already rejected an Enbridge offer of a 10 per cent stake in the pipeline. Hoberg said the fact that first nations are supporting natural gas pipeline plans shows that the issue is not money; it’s the difference between harmful effects of an accident involving gas and one involving oil.

          “The difference is that when an LNG facility fails, it can be explosive, but it does not result in the watercourse damage that oil would.”

          Vancouver Sun

          Read more: http://www.canada.com/becomes+ground+zero+pipeline+debate/5714250/story.html

          That pipeline is going through territory populated by aborigines. They’re going to fight like hell.

  • http://www.ajharaldson.com lakeworthcane

    America needs this pipeline.

    But people are just simply insane these days–as in not dialed in to reality–and “environmentalists” are on the cutting edge of that trend.

    I put the term “environmentalists” in quotes because I think a closer examination of these people, what they do and what they really care about, would reveal that they’re not really concerned with the environment so much as they’re concerned with persisting as glorious soldiers, banners flying and swords drawn to the ready, fighting passionately for some ill-defined “general goodness.” They’re nuts, they can vote, they have the media’s ear, and they’re being manipulated by those who sincerely want America to fail: those who sincerely hate the United States and are its sworn enemies.

    This pipeline’s “enivronmental” dangers are miniscule–inconsequential–compared to its benefits, and America’s current situation makes those benefits necessary. That’s the reality. But “environmentalists” are simply unwilling to acknowledge the reality. They’re nuts. They don’t get it.

    What will get through to them? What will get them to see? The country is up to its butt in alligators, and “environmentalists” are fretting about the right way to drain the swamp.

    I don’t think they can be made to see. This national “insanity” is too well-entrenched, too popular, too rewarded and too well-funded. Those of us with cooler heads and an eye on necessary needs that have to be met must simply find ways to override them.

    • adair

      that, in addition to the facts that they are nuts, they can vote, they have the media’s ear and they’re being manipulated by those who sincerely want America to fail, they have LOTS of money which they give to those who sincerely hate the U.S. … and to other Democrats.

    • renl57

      As they see it, they’re trying to save the planet *from* America. I’ve had lefties tell me that.

      And perhaps even save the planet from humanity itself.

      I see this attitude from environmentally-minded intellectuals all the time. They see Homo Sapiens as a kind of parasitic infestation on the planet Earth: Upsetting the natural balance of nature, using the entire planet for that species’ own benefit, even at the expense of thousands of other species and ecosystems.

      So they really don’t mind seeing Homo Sapiens suffering a bit, if it helps restore ecological balance or something.

      • quad4x4

        The wacko-envoiro nuts have not even a clue to what is really happening.. they think it is just a ‘Cause to Have’ and perhaps a “Happening” will occur. The Hate Us and the USA, lets buy them a ticket to Cuba or some other commie land and let the best commie win…so much for the wacko-nuts. a solution will happen fast.

        • renl57

          …they are hoping that the aliens win.

  • ihateliberals

    There are already billions of barrels right in the Continental 48 states that could be drilled for and totally erase the need for tankers or Pipelines from any foreign country. That would be called Oil Independence. We need to increase our refining capacity.

    • Raven

      Tanker trucks are just as risky as tanker ships. And they don’t carry very much per truck.
      The Keystone Pipeline could be fed from every corner of the lower 48. It would become, nationally, what TAPS is for Alaska: the central highway for oil from many separate sources.

  • ihateliberals

    to the American economy being robust as it was in the 50′s and 60′s. If Eisenhower had run into the environmentalist of today it would still take two weeks to get to California from new york by car. There would be no interstate highway system. We most likely wouldn’t have been able to got to he moon because of the Atlas Five pollution. I’m not saying we should abandon environmental concerns but that they must be balanced against the human needs of this country not the animals etc. I know they will argue tht their strict reg’s do help humans. well not that much i fear. We are the only country in the world that gives as much authority to extremist environmentalist. Our efforts are costing us Global position and giving it to countries like China tht goes to the other extreme on the environment. they only cared when it was going to affect the Olympics. Now tht the Olympic are gone they don’t care so much.

    we just have to have a good balance on things and right now we don’t. the EPA delays projects and makes them cost 10 -20% more than they should and the projects get built in the end anyway. The Red Tape form the EPA is costing us our sovereignty. We are slowly selling it to China, India and Mexico. None of those countries hav to worry about the EPA when they are building the very things we could have been building and creating jobs for in this country. If i were elected President the First agency to go would be the EPA. I wouldn’t have to think about it very hard like Perry did of his three. In my case there would be three but EPA would be first on the list then Energy & Education. the three “E’s”.

  • carolynr

    Oh…I guess I will have to let you all know…and the trolls what I did in another State. I was a resource member for the Department of Environmental Protection. WHAT…YOU SAY…A Conservative…part of that. Let me explain. I was one of three residential land brokers (commercial/residential) in an environmental state. Because developers did a lot of business with me…I was asked to present an opposing viewpoint. Now…I do see the need for environmental protection within the state I did business in because of the aquifer…however, as usual, they had gone completely overboard. Development was necessary but had to be performed in a way that would not hurt environmental issues (most of which were over the top). However, we did have a problem in this state concerning excellent percolation and water supply and surface runoff, not to mention waste issues both human and animal.

    Pipelines leaks I would suppose would result more in faulty connectors or sabotage by the very people trying to protect the land…and yes…they are that crazy…Remember Greenpeace. Anyway…that being said, the issue at hand is the percolation of the soil, i.e., how fast liquid is absorbed and penetrates aquifers. If the pipeline is proposed along springheads (which I doubt they have)…then I could see surface drainage into water. However, most aquifers are much deeper. As was stated above…oil is lighter than water. So now…the pipeline is above ground and the aquifer in probably at least 20-30 feet down if not deeper, unless located along rivers. I would guess, because I have not been there, that their soil is mainly that of medium percolation and would take considerable leakage and TIME to get to an aquifer. Sand…that percolates extremely well, is easily absorbed, whereas, brown or black dirt (which is probably the case because it is located far from existing oceans) does not percolate very well. This does not even take into account parched land where percolation is horrible.

    As is the usual case…the EPA has gone completely overboard to endanger our energy supply. Unless the right-of-ways were granted near rivers…which would also be the fault of the EPA…we really don’t have a danger. The benefits far out weigh the risk in my opinion as I was considered by these people to be an expert concerning development vs environmental protection.

    • avagreen

      details you provided.

      I’ve been on the edge of the knife concerning this issue as where I live we get a large part of our water from the Ogallala, which is quickly being depleted. And, of course this region supplies cotton, corn, cattle to the rest of the U.S. (prices would become astronomical if the supply were cut off or decreased……think of corn and all the products alone for an example )and, not to mention all the towns that would die if the Ogallala was ruined.:(

      Hard decision. But, think I’m leaning toward the pipeline from what I’ve read.

      This is just the beginning of the types of choices that our burgeoning populations will have to make over and over in the future: which loss is greater to chance over the other. But, WATER will be the most important: it’s fastly disappearing…. from all over the world.

      • http://stevemaley.com Steve Maley

        Unfortunately, as we saw with Macondo/BP spill last year, most environmentalists have a weak grasp on the science. The only one who gets any media attention is the one with the most dire outlook, hence he’s the “winner”.

        The states should regulate the bejeezus out of TransCanada to make sure they stay on top of pipeline maintenance. Lower the boom on them if they screw up.

      • carolynr

        We are running our of water because of population and poor management. This can be turned around. For one thing…what about desalination plants. We remove salt from the ocean and we have fresh. Another option is cisterns that collect water instead of allowing it to run off into sewers. This would be particularly helpful in the Panhandle area of FL…where we are trying to help some endangered mussels. Meanwhile…South GA is having a fit about water rationing.
        The problem with the government is that they lack common sense. There are so many ideas out there and yet we come up with the most costly.
        Here’s an example of private business not doing a good job and ruining water. Oil fracking will help NYS and PA greatly with their energy. However, some of the private drilling companies are using water to frac to break open the gas and oil deposits in the shale. They have to dig a retention pond…or worse yet, they haul off the residue from the fracking into streams and rivers. Either way…it is bad. There is a Canadian company that has also located in TX that Fracks with propane and it is ALL returned to the container as gas after being injected into the shale rock with a propane gel No residue…no retention ponds. But the EPA will probably allow this to go on too long…we will have a bad report of pollution ppm…and there will go the fracking…instead of doing it the way they do in Canada and TX.

        So…if I were you and you liked where you lived…I’d build myself a cistern…because if they are depleting the water from a river or lake…the water table drops…and it costs to drill wells…only to find out…that in a couple of years…the water table drops again.

        One thing we know…God always provides the rain. Pardon the pun on words…say “Heaven Sent”.

        • avagreen

          Or, even just catching the rain off our roof to water the garden.

          Unfortunately, in this present drought we’re having in this part of the U.S. (the worst since 1930′s……hence the wildfires Gov. Perry had to fight during the early debates), where I live we’ve had 4 inches in the last year. With the last 2 inches about a month ago.

          Not much to go into a cistern right now. Over the last year including Summer (100+degrees F for 3 mos) and Winter(-20degrees F ) at times, I’ve been busy providing water from a dripping garden hose into a 2qt pot for a bevy of wildbirds, one fox (that occasionally visits even though we are in the middle of a 250,000 population city), and one opossum (who lives under our tool shed in the backyard), and probs other creatures that visit.

          Hopefully, a small type cistern will be in the future. God willin’. Someone was actually advertising a machine that could make water by extracting the 0-2 (can’t write the correct scientific symbol) from the air.

  • adair

    Nobody can take the time, nor spend the money on bribes and overrides that would be required to build a nuclear power plant. It’s likely that our end of the pipeline would be made just as financially impossible, even if BHO had broken with tradition and actually made a decision which turned out to be “yes.”

    I’m afraid his not wanting to do the Saudis out of oil revenue is absolutely the #1 reason for this … well, maybe #2, since getting contributions from “environmentalists” and their sympathizers is #1. And seeing to it that America never recovers its rightful place as the economic leader of the world would have to squeeze in there at #1.5.

  • carolynr

    I donated money to the Tea Party Patriots…hoping that I would have a voice. No contact info…just e-mails wanting more money.

    America…readers…if we are going to stand for something…stand for it. We’ve watched our service people go to war and get mamed and killed to change an ideology. We didn’t go to win. If we did…there wouldn’t be terrorism. However, we have followed the dictates of the UN. What happened to our sovereign country?

    We wanted a candidate that would represent our hopes and dreams. Well…goody…we have one…less government, less taxes, energy independent, less regulation, JOBS, improvement of the economy…and what is it we are talking about…mopping the floor with Obama. The heck with Obama…At least vote for someone the OPPOSITE OF OBAMA.

    Talk is cheap…and it is. Let’s clean out this rat’s nest we have in DC. They spend how much time trying to come to an agreement about the debt ceiling…and it won’t happen…we get screwed in the meantime and then we whine. That is why term limits are important…or at the very least…let the Senate have the same term as the House. That way…you don’t do the job…you are out. Look at what they accomplish. The Senate has not passed a budged in over two years…and we accept that. Boehner plays golf with Obama…the heck with that…get going on the business of the people. I don’t pay you to play golf. Coburn…according to this Horowitz blog thinks we should take more money from the rich. I agree in one circumstance…when the lawmakers write the laws that allow the insider trading to play at the big Harrahs …i.e., the NYSE. This is OUR MONEY….OUR MONEY. We lay over and just take it. Why? Have we become a “lighter” version of OWS? We need change and if we don’t get it…it’s the end for all of us. The Titanic is going down…we’re on the ship and the politicians are partying.

  • quad4x4

    Perhaps the worst of it all is the williness of the agencies like EPA, and Energy Dept, to work against anything that promotes the wishes of the “greedy Corporations” {mostly owned by us}. Throw out the land management of fed. lands and give them back to states.

    Abolish these and other agencies. Lay waste to goverment pensions for elected officials = zero is good for past and present. Abolish unions in government. Lets see, that will kill at least 25,000 scuss butt jobs from interfering with the PEOPLE. Education Dept. restricts education, LETS privatize all education down to the local district school boards, if a school district wants to go private, allow it. Cuts another 20,000 jobs in goverment operations. All of above will off-burden a lot of support jobs, save at least 40% G&A.

    When we need services, we can provide them from the states and counties and so-called city/counties. And make them work with out hundreds of ‘grant’ writers begging for Federal Funds. We are Broke.

    When you stop feeding the monster, it will die.

    Tea Party: Must be willing and be able to fight the fight. It is coming on us so strong I worry about the aftermath of the fight for conservatives to win, some will not have the guts to fight, it will for them be just die or crawl in a damnable hole. RESTORE AMERICA.