Energy Transfer Partners plans to double the capacity of the Dakota Access Pipeline to 1.1 million barrels of oil per day. You can increase volume through a pipeline by making the oil less viscous or pushing it with more force. ETP is opting to push harder:
Energy Transfer plans to use additional horsepower. Work planned at a tank terminal near Johnsons Corner in northwestern North Dakota will include the addition of two 6,000-horsepower mainline pumps, along with other enhancements including a 300,000 barrel-capacity tank, according to a filing from Charles Frey, vice president of engineering for Energy Transfer subsidiary Dakota Access LLC.
Information provided by the company states Energy Transfer also will “purchase property outright for three new mid-point pumping stations; one each in North Dakota, South Dakota and Illinois.”
The work in North Dakota alone is expected to cost up to $40 million.
In a June 11 letter and exhibit to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, ETP’s South Dakota lawyer Brett Koenecke says the pipeliner will plunk a new pumping station in Lincoln County one mile south and 1.5 miles east of Harrisburg:
The Lincoln County pump station will be located as shown on the attached Exhibit A. As stated previously, and as an above ground facility, the new pump station will be permitted by Lincoln County. DAPL has purchased an option for the site which will subsequently be purchased in fee from the prior landowner and current zoning is compatible with the site. It will be served by the incumbent electric provider Southeastern Electric Cooperative, Inc.. It will have five pumps and motors and the footprint of the site will be exactly the same as described for the existing pump station. It will operate within the terms of the existing permit in all respects [Brett Koenecke, on behalf of Dakota Access LLC, letter to South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, 2019.06.11].
Koenecke’s letter informs the PUC that ETP will also upgrade three pumps and install two more at the Redfield pumping station. Koenecke’s letter emphasizes that the new Harrisburg pumping station and the upgrades to the Redfield station all fall within the conditions the PUC’s standing permit for Dakota Access; the only new permits required will be issued by the Lincoln County Commission. I’d suggest that folks not wanting to see even more oil flowing through our farmland and around the lovely homes of suburban Sioux Falls could express their opposition to the Lincoln County Commission, but pumping stations are included in the pipeline projects Governor Noem wants to protect from opposition with her anti-protest “riot-boosting” laws, so don’t go getting any ideas.
Surely, there’s absolutely no chance the increased pressure within a pipe designed for less pressure will be compromised and burst. (Edwin would be proud of my looking for problems and not just throwing the saddle over the fence and hoping everything turns out well.ツ)
How are these upright korporate citizens doing on their promised tax revenues for the state and local communities?
Does purchasing property outright entail eminent domain?
My hometown and county seem happy with the revenues and perks from DAPL. We’ll see how long the good will lasts when the Little Sioux River watershed gets a spill.
https://www.chronicletimes.com/story/2595676.html
Along the lines of property rights….https://www.npr.org/2019/06/22/734919303/supreme-court-overturns-precedent-in-property-rights-case-a-sign-of-things-to-co
Porter, the increased pressure is the first thing I
thought of.
Porter and Edwin, me too. How much $ has DAP plopped into a fund to cover coming spills? Anything?
According to the Des Moines Register, iowa wants DAPL to carry 25 million dollar insurance against spills in iowa. DAPL claims they carry 50 million for all four states and iowa says the majority of that could be used in a spill other than iowa.
The horse is out of the barn. Too late to shut the barn doors, dummies.