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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (887289)	9/13/2015 11:17:56 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575535

No it was mostly pretext. There have been pipelines crossing the aquifer since the 50s'. This is nothing new. If that issue didn't exist he would have found something else to block it because that's what part of his base wanted (and the rest wasn't opposed). In the unlikely event that they couldn't find or make up anything then it would just be opposed as contributing to global warming. --------------- Seventy-five to 80 percent of the aquifer lies west of the proposed pipeline route. The aquifer is sloped downward going east. If there were a spill, that entire section is unavailable to be harmed because water cannot move uphill. The 15 to 20 percent left, Goeke says, is in very little risk thanks to abundant fine-grain clays, sediment and sandstone separating the aquifer and potential contaminants from the pipeline. While Goeke agrees 20 percent would be a problem, he thinks the chances of a leak reaching the aquifer are very minimal. “It can’t get down to the water table because of the nature of the sediments in the unsaturated zone,” he said. Goeke likens pipelines to the fear of flying. “You’re flying at 30,000 feet going 500 miles an hour, and you don’t have a parachute, and that plane can crash,” Goeke said. “Pipelines in Nebraska are similar to flying airplanes. They get the job done, and sometimes the plane might crash. But overall, they’re safe, and I think that pipelines are similarly safe.” dailynebraskan.com ------- During the past 40 years, my colleagues and I at the Conservation and Survey Division of the University of Nebraska have focused our research on this aquifer. I personally have drilled more than 1,000 test holes into and through its complexities; I have analyzed the volume and behavior of the waters it holds. Here are several important findings. 1. The slope of the regional water table is from west to east; the deep waters within the host rocks move persistently downhill eastward. Approximately 80 percent of the Ogallala Aquifer lies to the west of the proposed alignment, “uphill” of the pipeline’s route. Spilled oil could not move upward against gravity. 2. Along much of the alignment, the depth to water is over 50 feet. Sediments above the top of the aquifer contain fine-grained deposits like silts and clays. In a 25-year study of an oil spill near Bemidji, Minn., the Geological Survey reported that “apparently fine-grained layers impeded the infiltration and redistribution of oil.” 3. If areas of the Ogallala were exposed to leaks from the pipeline, the highly varied layers within the rock formation itself would serve to localize the impact of a spill. 4. In places along the pipeline’s route, there are locations where the water table is near or at the land surface. It is my understanding that in these areas, TransCanada will encase the pipeline in a waterproof covering and cement jacket. nytimes.com Keystone XL’s path is east of more than 80 per cent of the Ogallala Aquifer. Impact modelling conducted by the State Department and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality has shown that in the very unlikely event of an incident, impacts would be localized to as little as tens of feet. That’s because the Ogallala Aquifer is a very large rock formation with layers and layers of sands, soils and rock layers. These thick layers offer a natural protection for the water below. For context, water travels through the Aquifer’s densely packed layers at a rate of two to three feet a day. In the New York Times Professor Goeke, gives a number of explanations as to why Keystone presents minimal risk; highlighting that the depth of the water along much of the alignment of the pipeline is between 50 and 300 feet deep. Keystone would be buried four feet deep. Any claim that the drinking water for the entire region would be affected is a gross exaggeration of the risks And in areas where the water table sits closer to the planned pipeline depth? TransCanada has already pledged to utilize waterproof coverings on the pipeline and cement jackets during construction. Remotely operated shutoff valves will be spaced closer together and can stop the flow of oil in minutes. Further to that, TransCanada uses high-quality carbon steel, capable of withstanding the 3.5-inch teeth from a 65-ton excavator. We also use a corrosion-resistant, fusion-bonded epoxy coating. In order to further shore up the integrity of our pipelines, we attach cathodic protection to our infrastructure. This is the same technique used on bridges, boats and cars to prevent rust from occurring. keystone-xl.com Throughout North America, communities and individuals rely on clean groundwater for drinking. In Nebraska, the Ogallala and High Plains aquifers are special, containing high-quality water resources that help Nebraska to be a leader in food production for the country and the world as well as contributing to the quality of life for residents who rely on the water for drinking. While Keystone XL incorporates unprecedented safety measures to reduce the risk of a release, the viability of these critical resources is safe even if there were a release that reached groundwater. Hydrocarbons, including the crude oils that will be transported in Keystone XL as well as refined petroleum products (such as diesel fuel, gasoline, etc.), behave very differently in groundwater than other common contaminants, such as nitrates. In groundwater, hydrocarbons are consumed by naturally occurring microbes, which limits their spread. Movement of dissolved hydrocarbon constituents typically is limited to less than 300 feet from the source. Movement is only in the direction of the flow of water through the ground. The rate of movement before equilibrium is established is slower than the movement of the groundwater. The inherent limitations on the impacts of an oil spill in groundwater is one of the reasons why the integrity of Nebraska’s aquifers has been safe despite oil wells in western Nebraska that have been pulling oil up through the aquifer from reserves below since the 1940s and despite pipelines moving vast quantities of petroleum across the aquifer in Nebraska since the 1950s. keystone-xl.com