ATKINSON, Neb. – Supporters and opponents of a proposed Canadian oil pipeline flooded into the north-central Nebraska town of Atkinson on Thursday, hoping to sway the U.S. State Department before it decides whether to allow the $7 billion project to proceed.
Residents said the Keystone XL pipeline proposal has divided the town and is expected to generate a large showing at the State Department hearing in the West Holt High School gymnasium. Similar meetings are taking place this week in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.
The pipeline operated by Calgary-based TransCanada would carry oil from Canada to Texas refineries. Business groups and unions say it will reduce Middle East oil dependence and create jobs.
The pipeline has drawn greatest resistance in Nebraska from some landowners, ranchers and environmental groups, who fear the line will contaminate part of the Ogallala aquifer that supplies drinking and agricultural water to eight states.
Bruce Boettcher, a fourth-generation rancher, said scientists who have proclaimed the project safe aren’t as familiar with the land as residents are.
“They have scientists, they have geologists, they have the EPA, and they find nothing wrong here,” Boettcher said. “But the people who live here know more. It’s not because we have some title and a name tag. We work with this land. We know what you can do and what you can’t do. And this is not one of the things you should not be doing.”
On Thursday, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard said he supports the project. Daugaard said he could not attend a hearing being held Thursday in Pierre by the U.S. State Department, which will decide whether to approve the 1,700-mile pipeline, but that an aide would deliver a letter from him urging federal officials to approve the project. The pipeline needs approval from the State Department because it would cross the U.S.-Canada border.
Daugaard said the proposed pipeline will create jobs in South Dakota, pay more than $10 million in local property taxes each year and provide a way to deliver oil produced in the state to refineries.
However, opponents said they believe the pipeline would leak.
Matt McGovern of the National Wildlife Federation said the original Keystone pipeline built across eastern South Dakota had a dozen spills in its first year of operation. A leak in May at a pumping station in southeastern North Dakota spilled more than 14,000 gallons of oil, he said.
“They don’t have a good safety record,” McGovern said.