Report: More Pipeline Spills in Our Future

For the second year in a row, Michigan residents won't be able to enjoy the usual summer pleasures on the Kalamazoo River. EPA recently announced it would keep a 30-mile stretch of river closed all season due to ongoing contamination from submerged oil originating from Enbridge's pipeline spill last July.

They could be in for more of the same should the U.S. continue to ignore the emerging risks of spills from the pipeline system slated to carry larger and larger volumes of Canada's corrosive tar sands oils through the Upper Midwest.

That's conclusion of a report (pdf) today put out by four groups: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC),  Sierra Club, Pipeline Safety Trust, and National Wildlife Federation.

“It is frightening to see how little research has been done on this issue. But as we saw in the Kalamazoo River last summer, there is real danger if we continue to ignore this problem. We need new safety standards in the United States that ensure our protection from raw tar sands oil in our pipelines. Planned tar sands pipelines, such as the Keystone XL project from Montana to Texas, should be put on hold until their risks are understood and addressed," said Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, NRDC's International Program director, in a statement about the report.

The Keystone XL project she references is a flash point in the debate over pipeline safety, one that Change.org has covered extensively as part of the No Tar Sands Oil coalition's campaign to stop its approval. Tar sands is one of the dirtiest forms of liquid energy that exists, and that holds true at every point in the process: when it is extracted in Alberta, transported through pipelines, and then refined at plants from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast. The report notes that in Alberta, where tar sands production as exploded to satiate U.S. demand, the pipeline system has experienced 16 times more safety incidences compared to systems in the U.S. That is scary given that Alberta's system is even newer than ours, and given that tar sands pipelines are criss-crossing over watersheds and aquifers that supply drinking water to millions.

Producers want to rapidly expand their U.S. deliveries. In 2000, they exported 100,000 barrels to the U.S. By 2019, they are looking for that to increase to as much as 1.5 million barrels PER DAY.

That plan, of course, hinges very much on the approval of new tar sands pipelines, such as Transcanada's Keystone XL. The State Department has not yet made its final decision and grassroots advocates and national environmental groups are doing their best to convince regulators to say no (so are TransCanada's lobbyists). Or to at least—at bare minimum—conduct a better environmental impact statement so these risks and concerns can be properly aired.

Please speak up now to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Trust me. It'll be way better than saying 'I told you so' when we're living with these pipeline risks.

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Photo credit: Itzafineday via Flickr