May 6, 2008

North Dakota proposal would limit future expansion of Keystone pipeline

BISMARCK, N.D.

A proposed state ballot measure would prevent the Keystone oil pipeline’s eastern North Dakota route from being used to lay additional pipelines to carry heavy Canadian crude, the measure’s supporters say.

“I’m hoping that the voters of North Dakota will see potential environmental threats and take appropriate action to speak out on this issue,” said Gerald Foote, of Grand Forks, one of the chairmen of the initiative campaign.

Backers of the proposal delivered a draft initiative petition to Secretary of State Al Jaeger’s office on Wednesday. Jaeger will decide within a few weeks whether to approve it for circulation.

The measure’s supporters face an Aug. 5 deadline to qualify for the November general election.

They must turn in signatures from at least 12,844 North Dakota voters by then to have a shot at a fall vote on their proposal.

The measure would ban construction of any new crude-oil pipeline within six miles of a lake or aquifer that provides water to more than 5,000 people, its text says. Pipelines that are “necessary to develop oil wells located in North Dakota” would be exempt from the restriction.

It was inspired by the Keystone pipeline, which is being built to carry Canadian crude from Alberta’s tar sands to Oklahoma and Illinois, where it can be supplied to Midwestern refineries.

When finished, the pipeline will stretch for 2,148 miles. It will carry 435,000 barrels of oil daily when it begins operating in late 2009, and be capable of transporting 590,000 barrels a day in late 2010, says its developer, TransCanada Corp., of Calgary.

North Dakota’s Public Service Commission already has approved the Keystone pipeline’s North Dakota route, which stretches for 218 miles through eight eastern counties. TransCanada plans to begin construction in the early summer.

Pipeline opponents unsuccessfully fought the route, saying it was too close to the Fordville aquifer, in southern Walsh County, and Lake Ashtabula, north of Valley City. Lake Ashtabula provides a backup water supply for the city of Fargo.

A website to support the initiative campaign,http://www.saveoursoil.net, says the initiative would preventsubsequent oil pipelines from being laid along Keystone’s approved route.

“The effect would be to route any future pipelines away from (Lake Ashtabula) and the Fordville aquifer, and hence from the Sheyenne Valley and most of the length of the river as well,” the Web site says.

“Since there is good reason to believe Keystone plans to put additional pipelines along the same route, the initiative may well succeed in rerouting the first pipeline, too.”

The Keystone route also traverses South Dakota, and South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds has said he expects as many as two additional pipelines to be installed along the route.

Associated Press

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