South Dakota Hearings Start On Crude Oil Pipeline

"If they just want to make their opinions known and their voices heard, they can do that through these hearings, or by sending the PUC a letter or an e-mail," he said. "And they can do that all the way up to the time in which we render a decision."

Johnson said he expects landowner rights to be a big issue at the hearings, though no more than with the first pipeline.

"Sometimes we do associate West River with a more strident interest in landowner rights," Johnson said. "But I'm going to be honest with you. The row-crop farmer in McCook County cares just as much about his land as the rancher does in Harding County.

"And there is a very emotional connection to the land for anybody that's grown up on a land, to anybody who's worked it."

The public hearings are scheduled for Monday at noon at the Winner Community Playhouse, Monday at 7 p.m. at the Fine Arts School in Philip, and Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Harding County Recreation Center in Buffalo.

In North Dakota, a study says building a pipeline from northwestern North Dakota to the new Keystone pipeline in southern Saskatchewan would be the most efficient way to move the region's oil production.