Oil and Water Don't Mix

Today began the next chapter of an environmental battle here in Nebraska that will affect everyone in the Unites States.  TransCanada, a Canadian oil company, filed another application to build their controversial Keystone XL pipeline across our state so they could transport Canadian tar sand oil from the oil fields in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.  Tar sand oil is a secondary product that is squeezed out of oil wells that have stopped producing.  It contains many impurities and is known in the oil industry as the dirtiest kind of oil because of this.

In his first few weeks in office Donald Trump extended an invitation to TransCanada and another pipeline company, Energy Transfer Partners, to resume construction of the new pipelines that President Obama had effectively killed over environmental and human rights issues.  Nothing Donald Trump does, no matter how bizarre, illegal, racially unjust, or morally bankrupt surprises us anymore, so the resurrection of these projects was expected. 

I have environmental concerns over both of these projects.  I am also opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline (the Energy Partners project) because of the harm it will cause to Native Americans living in or near it's path.  I believe it's just another example of the US government ignoring the basic human rights of a minority because they think they can get away with it.  I think this time things might turn out differently, but we'll have to wait and see.  The Native American protesters at Standing Rock have the support of most Americans and are willing to resort to any means to stop construction of DAPL.  Their willingness to give up everything, including their lives in many cases, may limit the options of the government and force a change in plans for that project.  

My main concerns over Keystone XL are environmental.  There is a large body of water that runs underneath most of the pipeline's path, from South Dakota all the way to Texas.  It is know as the Ogallala Aquifer and it is perhaps the most important water supply in America.  Let me tell you why.

The Ogallala Aquifer was formed about a bazillion years ago when the Rocky Mountains were being pushed upward by volcanic activity.  Huge quantities of water flowed eastward from the new mountains and deposited gravel and silt hundreds of feet thick.  The gravel is porous, so the space between the pieces of gravel filled with water, where it remains to this day.  This water can be extracted easily because, for the most part, it is plentiful and near the surface.  In Nebraska this water is only a few feet from the surface.  In Texas it's up to 100 feet below the surface.  The saturated thickness of the Ogallala Aquifer also varies greatly, from about 100 feet in Texas to over 1,000 feet in Nebraska.  This means that in Nebraska, you can drill down just a few feet and you will find water for the next 1,000 feet deeper you drill.  

Scientists have estimated that the amount of water contained in the Ogallala aquifer is roughly the same amount contained in Lake Huron.  Because both the saturated thickness and the areal extent of the Ogallala Aquifer is greater in Nebraska, the state accounts for two-thirds of the volume of Ogallala groundwater, followed by Texas and Kansas, each with about 10 percent. If spread across the U.S. the water contained in the aquifer would cover all 50 states with 1.5 feet of water.

The Ogallala Aquifer is the most important source of water for us here in the High Plains region (we call it the midwest, but scientists call it the High Plains region).  It provides nearly all our water for residential, industrial, and agricultural use.  Farming in this region accounts for about 20% of the wheat, corn, cotton, and cattle produced in the US.  Without irrigation from the Ogallala Aquifer, none of this would even be possible.

If you want to learn more about the Ogallala Aquifer, you can find more information here.

By now you should have an idea of how big the Ogallala Aquifer is and why it's so important to us.  Without it, it would be impossible to produce up to 20% of this country's agricultural products.  That's a lot of stuff that would need to be sourced elsewhere at a much higher cost to the consumer.  The other alternative would be to just do without.

My greatest concern with the Keystone XL is that it runs right above the aquifer, only a few feet in some places.  If an accident occurred, oil would flow directly into the aquifer.  Proponents of the pipeline say that nature is resilient and that the aquifer would cleanse itself of oil spilled into it over time.  Yes it will, but in this case "over time" means about 10,000 years.  TransCanada has a pretty good safety record, but it's not perfect.  Would you want to risk your supply of fresh water on their safety record?

Proponents of the pipeline also say that it will bring new jobs to the US.  Yes, this is true.  It will create a large number of construction jobs while the pipeline is being built.  These jobs disappear after the pipeline is operational.  TransCanada has stated that after it's initial construction, Keystone XL will provide 35 permanent jobs.  That's 35 jobs total, not the thousands that the Trump administration claims.  I have no idea where they got their claim of thousands of permanent jobs.  TransCanada says otherwise.

Advocates of the pipeline also claim that Keystone XL will reduce America's dependency on  oil from the Middle East and South America.  This would be a true statement if any of the refined oil was going to stay in the US, but it isn't.  TransCanada will ship tar sand oil through the pipeline to a refinery on the Gulf coast, where it will be refined and loaded on tankers bound for China.  They have stated this fact already, so there is no basis to the Trump administrations's claim that this oil will be available for use in the United States.

I can't figure out what the Trump administration hopes to gain by moving this project forward.  Our president either has a personal interest buried somewhere in the pipeline or he's simply not smart enough to see that it would be harmful to build it.  From what we've seen so far it seems like he makes decisions based on what sounds good at the moment rather than through careful consideration and information gathering.  And with an ego like his, once the decision has been made he is afraid he will lose face by changing it, so he viciously defends even his worst decisions rather than admitting he made an error.

So the bottom line here is that a Canadian company wants to ship the dirtiest oil product in existence across our water supply, refine it, and then ship it to China.  The oil will be produced by a Canadian company, owned by a Canadian company, and sold by that Canadian company to a Chinese company.  The only thing we get out of this deal are 35 jobs and we also have to figure out how to dispose of the waste products produced during the refining process before the finished product is shipped somewhere else.  And we get to bear the risk of not being able to use our water supply for the next 10,000 years.  Not a Canadian water supply or a Chinese water supply.  Our water supply.

Does that sound like a good deal to you?  Not to me.  I'm not yet sure what kind of activism I'll use to try and stop this from happening, but I'm not going to sit by and just watch.  I hope you will also get involved because the whole country has a lot to lose and very little to gain if the Keystone XL is built.