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Keystone XL pipeline may threaten aquifer that irrigates much of the central U.S.

By Steven Mufson,August 06, 2012

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The aquifer has long been drained for irrigation and for industrial uses such as ethanol plants, which turn corn into motor fuel. From the time humans began extracting water from the aquifer through 2000, the volume of water in the aquifer fell by about 6 percent. Since then irrigation and industrial usage has accelerated.

The decline in the aquifer isn’t uniform. From 2007 to 2009, for example, there was an increase in water stored in the aquifer in Nebraska overall, according to Goecke, but in southwest Nebraska water levels are falling; by 2007, there were 4¹/₂times as many irrigation wells in the state as there had been in 1960. In north Texas and west Kansas, the Ogallala water levels are falling precipitously, more than 100 feet in 60 years, according to a University of Texas at Austin study.

And the use of pesticides on cropland has polluted parts of the formerly pristine aquifer.

But many environmentalists say that the pipeline poses special dangers: They say that ingredients of crude from oil sands make pipelines more prone to leaks. They argue that the diluted bitumen, or “dilbit,” from the oil sands can separate under pressure and temperature and create explosive natural gas, heavy compounds and corrosive acids.

Environmentalists also point to Enbridge, another Canadian pipeline company, which two years ago suffered a pipeline rupture that dumped at least 20,000 barrels into Talmadge Creek, ultimately fouling more than 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Mich.

Unlike conventional crude oil, which floats in water, the bitumen in the oil sands crude sank to the riverbed, making it hard to recover. Higher levels of benzene in the pipeline mixture forced a temporary evacuation of the area.

“Just looking at the Kalamazoo spill, it does scare us as to what a spill could do in our state and water supply,” Kleeb said.

TransCanada has also suffered leaks, though not as dire. The company’s existing Keystone pipeline has had 14 leaks, all at pumping stations where they were controlled. The smallest was “a few drops,” the company says, but the biggest was about 400 barrels. The company has identified a piece of equipment at fault, a fitting that failed aboveground, and replaced them up and down the line.

“When people talk about the 14 spills . . . every one of them was a leak on our pump stations, and they’re minor,” said TransCanada’s Girling. “They are coming through seals. . . . Our pipe has not leaked once. It’s welded. And if it breaks underground, [the oil] doesn’t go anywhere. We shut the pipeline down.”

But Kleeb said: “TransCanada can not say they are building the ‘safest’ pipeline with the ‘best’ technology if . . . their line already had 14 leaks — and I don’t care if it’s only been on the pumping stations: Leaks are leaks, and 14 is not safe.”

“Jane Kleeb’s big political argument was ‘protect the aquifer,’ ” said a longtime Republican Party activist, who asked for anonymity to protect his business relationships. “You’ll get a sympathetic ear for that from people living in Lincoln or Omaha. Now with new route she’s still against it, which means she’s really just against fossil fuels.”

Indeed, the new route has not mollified Kleeb, who says it still runs over ecologically sensitive areas. Kleeb also doubts political arguments that the pipeline will enhance U.S. energy security; she says that much of the crude in the line would be refined in Texas and sold overseas.

“I hate bullies. I hate corporations who think because they have a lot of money and political officials in their pocket they can run all over landowners,” Kleeb said. “I also don’t like politicians saying we have to be ‘energy-independent’ and then allow an export pipeline to cross our land and water while pretending it is helping make our country energy-independent.”

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