Dear Friends,
LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM:
1. Kansas pipeline rupture raises concerns about DAPL, CO2 pipelines, with Jessica Wiskus (2:24)
2. Burglar for Peace, with Ted Glick (19:29)
3. Biodiversity takes center stage at COP15 summit, with Mark Edwards (37:28)
4. December garden Q & A, with Kathy Byrnes (53:51)
Last week, we witnessed another pipeline rupture. An estimated 770,000 gallons of tar-sands oil spilled out of the Keystone Pipeline into a Kansas creek. [Note: This is a different pipeline than the Keystone XL pipeline that President Biden shut down last year.] It’s the largest rupture in that company’s history, and the largest onshore crude oil pipeline spill since 2013.
Jessica Wiskus
The Kansas spill did not go unnoticed by Iowans fighting three CO2 pipelines targeting nearly 2,000 miles (yes, miles!) of Iowa farms, forests, and wetlands.
Jessica Wiskus is a Linn County landowner. She has deep concerns about the CO2 pipelines and their impact on soil, water, property rights, public health, and climate change. On this week’s program, Jessica and I discuss how the pipeline rupture in Kansas might affect the CO2 pipeline fight here.
“As bad as oil pipeline ruptures are, a CO2 pipeline rupture could be much worse,” said Jessica. “Carbon dioxide is an asphyxiate. In concentrations of 15% or more it can cause loss of consciousness, seizures, convulsions, coma, and death in less than one minute.
“A couple weeks ago, the pipeline companies were asked to submit basic safety information. In response, Wolf Carbon Solutions wrote, ‘The requested information — an emergency response plan, risk assessment, and discharge plume model — should not be required as a condition precedent to the granting of a permit.’ So, they want to build this pipeline before they even have an emergency response plan!”
That’s pretty incredible. And arrogant. And dismissive of the public good. And, well, predictable. “Profit before people” is the apparent working motto for much of corporate America.
The recent Keystone rupture has ramifications for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) as well. Keystone was shut down in 2017 after a 210,000 gallon spill in South Dakota. When it reopened, federal officials required the pipeline to operate at lower (read “safer”) pressure, only to lift the limitation several months later.
Officials should impose the lower pressure requirement on Keystone again — and keep it there. Clearly, when a pipeline operates under higher pressure, there is greater risk of a rupture.
What’s the DAPL connection? As we “speak,” DAPL is working to upgrade its pump station in Cambridge, Iowa, so it can double the flow of oil. The IUB granted DAPL permission to do so last year, but in light of the Kansas pipeline rupture, the IUB should revisit that decision.
Meanwhile, there’s more bad news for landowners along the DAPL route. Navigator wants to run its pipeline adjacent to the DAPL line. One farmer, Doug Fuller, shared this with me last week:
“The Navigator CO2 pipeline is planning to cross our farm. My memory is too fresh as to DAPL coming across just a few years ago. Our land will never be the same. The pipeline right-of-way yields less than half of what our other land yields, especially in a dry year. Navigator would most likely have the same effect, because the way pipelines are built today is like raping the land. The soil profile will never be the same. The compaction will never improve because it is too deep for frost to break it up.”
ACTION ALERT: Write to the IUB and tell them (1) don’t approve a permit for any of the three corporations that want to build a CO2 pipeline, and (2) revisit the 2021 decision to allow DAPL to double the flow of oil through its pipeline, given the Keystone Pipeline rupture in Kansas.
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action. If you’d like to support our work, please visit this link or mail a check to: Fallon Forum, 735 19th Street, Des Moines, IA 50314.
Thanks! — Ed Fallon
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1. Kansas pipeline rupture raises concerns about DAPL, CO2 pipelines, with Jessica Wiskus (2:24)
2. Burglar for Peace, with Ted Glick (19:29)
3. Biodiversity takes center stage at COP15 summit, with Mark Edwards (37:28)
4. December garden Q & A, with Kathy Byrnes, Birds & Bees Urban Farm (53:51)
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Ed Fallon