LINCOLN — TransCanada has already begun preliminary study of potential new routes for its Keystone XL pipeline in north and central Nebraska.
Engineers have been flying over and driving through parts of 25 counties this week to see what physical and technological challenges lie ahead in rerouting the 36-inch crude-oil pipeline around the state's groundwater-rich Sand Hills.
Rerouting the controversial pipeline was part of a compromise reached last month during a special session of the Nebraska Legislature in hopes of resolving environmental roadblocks facing the 1,700-mile-long, $7 billion project.
TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard said Wednesday the survey work is preliminary in nature and should be completed by Saturday.
The company, he said, cannot identify possible corridors for a new pipeline route until the state signs off on a definitive map of the Sand Hills, a map that may be a couple of weeks from being final.
"We want to identify any potential obstacles that we could run into," Howard said. "We've already ran into a wind farm we didn't know existed."
He said the company also wanted to get a "bird's-eye" look at potential new routes before snow covered the landscape.
About 100 miles of the pipeline will be rerouted, resulting in an extra 25 to 50 miles of additional pipe compared to the original XL route.
Howard said county clerks in 25 counties east of the old route were notified about the survey work, as was the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, which is overseeing the environmental review of the new pipeline detour.
Pat Rice, the DEQ water division administrator who is overseeing the Keystone XL project, said the state is using an Environmental Protection Agency "ecoregion" map of the Sand Hills as a starting point in delineating the areas the pipeline detour must avoid.
Rice said the department plans to look at other state and federal studies of the Sand Hills, as well as local natural resources district data about groundwater depth, to determine the exact area that should be off limits. Local conditions, such as areas of high groundwater, will also be considered, he said.
Howard said TransCanada will use that map to develop wide corridors where the new pipeline route might be detoured, and seek to get state agreement on that. Then the company would work to develop a preferred route and possibly several alternate routes.
Howard said the company would also take local farming practices into consideration, which could inspire minor variations in a route.
The state hopes to complete its environmental review in six to nine months. But that clock won't start ticking until TransCanada submits its new route, Rice said.
That would seem to coincide with the announced time frame — early 2013 — for a federal decision on the Keystone XL project, though there are efforts under way in Congress to force a quicker decision.
TransCanada is also now seeking permission to build a portion of the XL line from Cushing, Okla., to the oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, and await permission for the rest of the project.
The State Department decided last month to postpone a final decision on Keystone XL until 2013, citing concerns about its route across the Sand Hills, which sits over the richest portions of the Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer supplies 80 percent of the region's drinking water and 30 percent of the nation's water for irrigation.
Holt County Clerk Cathy Pavel said she was among the clerks notified by TransCanada. She said local landowners are curious about where the pipeline might be rerouted, and it was a good call to let local officials know that survey workers would be flying overhead and driving country roads.
The DEQ also is in the process of building a "public portal" on its website so pipeline documents and other news can be shared with the public. The website is www.deq.state.ne.us/
The Sand Hills map being used as a starting point by the state is available online at ftp://ftp.epa.gov/wed/ecoregions/ks/ksne_eco_pg.pdf
Contact the writer:
402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
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