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LINE 3 PIPELINE ABANDONMENT: What You Need to Know

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LINE 3 PIPELINE ABANDONMENT: What You Need to Know LINE 3 PIPELINE ABANDONMENT: What You Need To Know Follow us on facebook: @Honor the Earth WWW.HONOREARTH.ORG SUMMARY: Enbridge’s Line 3 Pipeline ships Tar Sands crude from Alberta to Superior, WI, spanning over 300 miles across North- ern Minnesota, crossing the Leech Lake and Fond du Lac reservations and the l855 and l842 treaty areas. Line 3 was built in l96l and now has significant structural integrity problems. Enbridge’s latest public estimates indicate over 900 integrity “anomalies” in the pipeline. Instead of fixing it or removing it, they want simply to abandon the pipeline and build a new one, the “Line 3 Replacement,” in a brand new corridor. The State of Minnesota, including the Public Utili- ties Commission (PUC), has the power and responsibility to regulate pipeline abandonment, but there is currently no process in place. Because Line 3 is the first major crude oil pipeline to be abandoned in the state, there is a risk that the PUC will avoid their responsibility. As it stands now, Enbridge receives powers of eminent domain to build its pipelines, but is not required to assume responsibility for them when they die. They are allowed to leave behind what is likely a superfund site. Tribal members, homeowners, local businesses, and people across the north are standing up to say no, and demand a regulatory process and an insurance requirement. DEATH OF A PIPELINE: Enbridge has gathered extensive integrity data on Line 3 throughout its op- eration. The data shows a high number of integrity anomalies – specifically, corrosion and long seam cracking. All those “structural anomalies” mean there is likely a lot of oil in the soil now. This contamination could become the responsibility of nearby landowners, if discovered. As a result of these anomalies, Line 3 has experienced a number of failures during its 54 years of history. This means that Line 3 requires a high level of integrity monitor- ing and an extensive on-going integrity dig and repair program. Approxi- mately 4,000 integrity digs in the US alone are currently forecasted for Line 3 over the next 15 years, just to maintain its current level of operation. REGULATORY FAILURE (AGAIN): At the state level, there are no abandonment guidelines or definitions for intrastate crude oil pipelines. Any mention of abandonment of pipeline pro- cedures follows the federal guidelines for disconnecting from active service and purging of any hazardous substance. If Enbridge is not required to Enbridge oil spill in Cohassett, MN, 2002. remove the pipeline and restore the damaged ecosystems, there may never be a full accounting of the on-going and future contamination surrounding the pipeline. PIPELINE ABANDONMENT IN CANADA: The US has vague and inadequate laws on pipeline abandonment, and the responsibility to protect landowners and the public from the risks created by abandoned pipelines rests with the states. In contrast, the National Energy Board of Canada thoroughly regulates all aspects of pipeline abandonment, because it found that they pose substantial risks to landownerss. For example, it regulates the surveys to identify potential contamination, removal, plugging, or filling abandoned pipelines to ensure that they don’t cause drainage problems or sink holes, and has ordered Enbridge to set aside nearly $1 billion to pay for future abandonment of its pipelines in Canada. It includes info on pipeline cor- rossion and soil subsidence, reccommending any pipeline owner/operator considering the abandonment of a pipeline to conduct a professional, site-specific analysis to evaluate potential impact. Potential sources of soil and groundwater contamination include: • substances produced in the reservoir and depos- ited on the walls of the pipeline; • treatment chemicals in the pipeline; • the line pipe and associated facilities; • pipeline coatings and their degradation products; • historical leaks and spills; • possible PCB contamination, from lubricants. There are also enormous potential hydrological impacts, as abandonedin Williston, pipelines ND. can In transform the last 2 years,over timeover into300 pipelinewater spills went unreported in North Dakota conduits.alone! Eventually, A full rupture corrosion of the allows Sandpiper water would to enter release the over 20,000 gallons of oil per minute, making pipe, whichmillion-gallon leads to unnaturalspills entirely drainage possible. of Smaller areas suchspills asare harder to detect and can last for days. muskegs, sloughs, or marshes, affecting the natural balance of the ecosystem• Refusal and to Respondincreasing Appropriately: the risk of soil and water In the past MN legislative session, Enbridge lobbied agressively against legislation that would contamination,improve especiallydisaster response, in wetlands, and refused as any to agreewater with that many reasonable measures that would improve infiltratespreparedness, the pipeline prevention, is likely to containment, carry residual and contaminants. cleanup. PUBLIC• HEARINGSTreaty Rights ON Violations: LINE 3: There isThe no US regulatory government process has a responsibility for the proposed under federal aban law- to honor the rights guaranteed to tribal members in their treaties. The proposed pipelines would violate the treaty rights of the Anishinaabeg donmentby ofendangering Line 3, so primary the public areas ofshould hunting, voice fishing, their wild rice harvest, medicinal plant harvest, and concernsorganically at the MN certified Public wild Utilities rice crops Commission’s outlined in the public l867, l855 and l854 treaty areas. The US Supreme hearingsCourt on hasthe upheldnew Line the rights 3 construction of native peoples permit, to hunt, and fish, and subsist off the land. An important recordedFebruary in that 2015 docket. decision See by the our US website 8th Circuit for Court details of Appeals upheld the rights of Ojibwe people (honorearth.org)to hunt and sellor fishthe PUCin the website1855 treaty (mn.gov/puc). area. These pipelines threaten the culture, way of life, and physical survival of the Ojibwe people. The Certificate of Need docket is CN-14-916 and the Route Permit docket is PPL-15-137. • Property Rights and Insurance: Tribal governments,If Enbridge is granted environmental the Certificate organizations, of Need for this and pipeline citizens (decision continue in April/May), to oppose it will the receive Line 3 corridor. We expect powersfederal of intervention eminent domain, and on a grounds protracted that it legal is a public and utilit regulatoryy providing battle a public over benefit. the coming This would years. allow them to take the property needed to build these new pipelines, without landowner consent, just as governments do to build roads and other public infrastructure. This is a problem: Enbridge is a private Canadian corporation that willOTHER earn billions WAYS of dollars TO TAKE in profit ACTION: by carrying privately owned oil 1. Joinfor a newa limited group number of concerned of privately ownedlandowners, oil companies. Minnesotans Enbridge foris now Pipeline suing North Cleanup Dakota (pipelinecleanupmn.org). farmer Sign theirJames petition, Botsford download for his land, a and sample the case letter may to set send the precedent to your forofficials, their use ofattend eminent their domain. free informational In meetings. 2. Speakthe process,out: Contact Botsford your found tribal that no leaders, insurance your company City Councilmembers,would insure his farm County in case of Commissioners, a spill, and and especially that is after an Enbridge clean up. Governor Mark Dayton (651-201-3400). Tell them they have a responsibility to protect Minnesota’s precious resources,GET honor INVOLVED: our treaties, and work with tribal governments. 3. JoinSome more feel than that 24 the landownersSandpiper is inevitable. and citizens We know applying that is tofalse. formally We can intervene stop this pipeline, in the butLine we 3 permitting process. This meanshave toyou work are together. a formal Here party are action in the steps PUC you hearings can take today:and get to ask questions, comment, etc. 4. Connect1. Stay with informed: your localFollow environmental us on facebook, usegroups resources or faith on our communities. website, come to events, & contact us. 2. Speak out: Contact the Public Utilities Commission, your tribal leaders, your City Councilmembers, 5. Writeyour op-ed County articles Commissioners, or letter andto the Governor editor Mark and Dayton. publish This them is a in state-wide your local public newpaper. policy issue. 6. Help3. distribute Get connected: our literatureGet involved or with organize your local an environmental event. groups or faith communities. 5. Support4. Support our work our work by bydonating donating thru thru our website.website, or signing up for a monthly contribution. VisitVISIT our websiteOUR WEBSITE for articles, FOR videos, RESOURCES and AND resourcesWAYS to stay TO informed TAKE ACTION and organize: TODAY! HONOREARTH.ORGWWW.HONOREARTH.ORG Follow us onFollow facebook: us on facebook: @Winona Laduke@Honor Honor the Earth the Earth.
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