As the state Water Management Board heads toward a final decision on the water permits TransCanada/TC Energy needs to service its man camps and Keystone XL construction, Dakota Rural Action notes that the Canadian pipeliners have been quietly lining up water deals with small towns along the construction route:
This summer, Dakota Rural Action staff was notified by Harding County residents that the Buffalo Town Board of Trustees had been in discussions with TransCanada regarding the use of municipal water from a new town well, financed by the pipeline company and completed by Gregory Water & Energy on July 22, 2019, according to the SD Water Well Completion Report. Those reports of TC-Town Board negotiations were backed by Town Board meeting minutes published in Nation’s Center News, the paper of record.
The Buffalo Board’s Dec. 17 meeting minutes, published in the Dec. 26 edition of the paper, record a “WELL #8 AGREEMENT WITH TC,” with a motion to approve and unanimous assent, as well as a similar outcome for a “right away” [sic] agreement with TransCanada. Then, in the January 6, 2020 weekly DENR Public Notice Update email, a new Water Appropriation Permit Application was listed from Ryan Smith, Town of Buffalo Water Superintendent, which references the same “Well #8” and claiming the sole use of that water as “Municipal” [Dakota Rural Action, “TransCanada Uses Rural Communities to Hide Insatiable Thirst for Public Water,” January 2020, retrieved 2020.01.15].
Governor Noem probably will tell us that being “Open for Business” means being open for pipelines. She’ll probably tell us (when she gets back from her latest junket to see her real pals in Washington) that building big pipelines is part of her “aggressive model for families” that keeps young people from moving away. But she also talked yesterday about Eisenhower’s warning that we “avoid the impulse of living only for today” and “how wrong it would be to mortgage the future of our grandchildren….” When remote small towns like Buffalo and Colome “roll out the red carpet, not the red tape” for TransCanada and other foreign corporate exploiters, they sacrifice long-term water supplies and water quality for a brief boost to their local finances. Small towns selling out to Keystone XL put themselves on a path to literally dry up and see more youth move away.
It’s so dry up there. That desert should never give away or sell any of their water. It’s only going to get drier and thirstier.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/479425-trump-administration-moves-controversial-keystone-xl-pipeline
drumpf gave TC permission to build pipeline across federally managed lands in Montana. Is South Dakota next?
Environmental Executioner is trying hard to do the same in Minnesota regarding pipelines and mines, but we have a robust environmental community and strong court system. So far, law breaking has been stymied. So far.
http://www.startribune.com/green-energy-relies-on-copper-nickel-mining/566105561/
“If we want nickel for electric car batteries, we should mine it here under the strictest environmental standards. If it cannot be mined safely, then we have no business mandating these products.”
We are going to use energy, and we are going to use a lot more energy. So we will have to find ways to deliver that energy as safely and as efficiently as possible.
That includes Cobalt which is mined in Africa for batteries used here. That includes rare earths mined in China that are used in wind turbines here. That includes oil from Canada which is sent through the US to be consumed somewhere else.
They all occur on the same planet regardless.
So make the pipeline better and safer, and encourage the more efficient use of that resource. Develop the better renewables that are designed to have a better overall life-cycle.
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/trump-regulators-leave-homeowners-in-limbo-after-using-an-obscure-maneuver-to-let-oil-companies-seize-land/
Regulators can tie up home owner’s suits in limbo for years while oil companies do their damage and move on.