By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News Today
Health & Environment Editor
PIERRE – Bracing for another round of hearings about giving public water to the Canadian TC Energy Corp. for building the private Keystone XL Pipeline, self-proclaimed water protectors urged participation and a letter-writing campaign in opposition.
The South Dakota Water Management Board is set to meet on October 29-31 to entertain three KXL water permits “requesting a large amount of our surface water for one purpose – to build a hazardous materials pipeline in a diagonal across agricultural lands,” said Bruce Ellison, representing opponent grassroots Dakota Rural Action, at the most recent of two previous water permit hearings October 3-4.
The slated route runs through nine counties on a diagonal line through West River South Dakota.
“With the flooding we have been having, the instability of much of these lands should be of an importance,” he said. “We are transporting a foreign company’s fracked oil across our state at great risk. This is oil from which we get virtually no benefit,” he added.
Winding up the first day of water appropriation permit hearings for Keystone XL.
Whose water is it? The people’s water....
Posted by Dakota Rural Action on Thursday, October 3, 2019
Dakota Rural Action joins other petitioners against the tar-sands crude oil line’s construction, among them Mniwakan Nakicijinpi (Lone Eagle family youth pipeline fighters), the Yankton, Rosebud, and Cheyenne River Sioux tribal governments, and the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance, as well as individuals from South Dakota and Nebraska.
Their sign-on letter for the cause states: “We, the undersigned, OBJECT to the use of our public waters for these purposes, and we URGE the Water Management Board to use public interest and beneficial use considerations to DENY these permits in order to PROTECT our water supply for current and future generations.”
TC Energy Corp., formerly named TransCanada Corp., seeks nearly 167 million gallons of water over a two-year period from the Cheyenne, White, and Bad rivers for use in building and testing the tar-sands crude oil line.
At the same time, the board is considering applications from separate individual well owners for two permits to divert flow from Inyan Kara and Hell’s Creek underground water tables in order to assure supply for six man camps -- squatter settlements for the transient workers from elsewhere who would be hired to install the line.
“These applications are not for beneficial use and their approval would be a waste of water,” said Peter Caposella, representing the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance.
He argued that allocating water to the company when it has no federal permits to proceed would unlawfully take the resource out of circulation. He also noted “concerns with pipeline failures” and “crimes against women,” which demonstrably increased in man-camp areas of North Dakota’s Bakken oilfield.
Jennifer Baker, speaking on behalf of the Yankton Sioux Tribe, said, “There is a possibility the tribe’s water use and other’s will be affected by a spill.”
South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources Chief Engineer Jeanne Goodman has recommended approval of the two underground water permits and the river water allocation.
Her permit recommendations are based on the criteria of “reasonable probability that unappropriated water is available, the proposed diversion can be developed without unlawful impairment of existing rights, and the proposed use is beneficial and in the public interest,” she said.
Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman(at)gmail.com
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