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Tar Sands toxins could poison drinking water |
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Letter from Shirley Starke
Valley City, N.D.
A few days ago, about 500 migrating ducks landed in a toxic tailings pond operated by Syncrude, in the Tar Sands of northern Alberta. An all-out effort was made to rescue them, but despite the best efforts of rescuers and
veterinary science, only five birds were still alive at last count.
Now I will turn my attention to people - and specifically to people in North Dakota.
TransCanada refuses to tell us what chemicals will be in the Keystone pipeline, calling it "proprietary information," but we know the pipeline will carry tar from the Tar Sands - a thick substance like asphalt that has to be heated in order to force it under high pressure through a pipeline.
Because very little refining is done before they move it through the pipeline, the toxins that killed those ducks - simply by landing on it - will almost certainly be carried through our fields and through wetlands that drain constantly into Lake Ashtabula and the Sheyenne River, the source of water for thousands of people in North Dakota.
A pinhole leak can leak for 90 days before it is noticed, and a leak in a field or wetland would go unnoticed far longer than a leak on a highway right of way. By the time it is noticed, over a million barrels of oil could enter the river and the lake.
The initiative Save Our Soil filed on Wednesday would ensure that future pipelines - and the current one if TransCanada wants to put them all along the same route - will be located on the other side of a glacial moraine, or high gravel ridge, from the water, ideally on the I-32 right of way that was TransCanada's first choice.
The initiative would place no restrictions on oil from wells in North Dakota, not only to promote our own oil over foreign oil but because the light, sweet crude from North Dakota oil wells would not carry unknown toxins.
We need as many volunteers as possible to get more than 13,000 signatures by August 8. To learn more or to contact us, please check our website at saveoursoil.net.
Shirley Starke is coordinator of the grassroots group Save Our Soil, based in Valley City.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 May 2008 )
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