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New Keystone Route ALSO Crosses Sensitive Areas
If the pipeline should spring a leak where it touches the aquifer or even above it, Kleeb and other opponents say, oil could quickly seep into and through the porous, sandy soil. The Ogallala, Kleeb said last year in a television interview, is "a very fragile ecosystem, literally made of sand. . . . To have a pipeline crossing that region is just mind-boggling."Shirley, there are no existing pipelines in the enormous aquifer that covers several states. Expert is 'embarrassed' Goecke says that many people have the wrong impression about the danger a pipeline leak would pose to the Ogallala. He said people "were concerned that any spill would contaminate and ruin the water in the entire aquifer, and that's just practically impossible." To do that, the oil would essentially have to run uphill, he said. "The gradient of the groundwater is from west to east; 75 percent to 80 percent of the aquifer is west of the pipeline, and any contamination can't move up gradient or up slope," he said. "Secondly," Goecke added, "any leakage would be very localized. . . . A spill wouldn't be nice, but it would certainly be restricted to within a half-mile of the pipeline." He predicted that the varied layers of fine-grained seams of silt and clay would contain the flow of oil. After TransCanada submitted a revised Keystone XL route that veered east of the Sand Hills, Goecke agreed to appear in a television ad for TransCanada. Goecke is Professor Emeritus at the U of Neb. What does HE know? Posted by: Bobby 2012-08-10 |
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