South Dakota Hearings Start On Crude Oil Pipeline

DIRK LAMMERS

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Western South Dakota residents get their chance Monday and Tuesday to speak out about a planned crude oil pipeline that could one day carry 900,000 barrels of oil a day through the state.

TransCanada Keystone Pipeline already is building a pipeline through eastern South Dakota. The company's second proposed pipeline, Keystone XL, is designed to run 313 miles through western South Dakota as part of a project to deliver Alberta tar sands crude oil to Gulf Coast terminals and refineries in Texas.

If approved, construction would begin in 2011.

The state Public Utilities Commission expects to hear from residents who want to make sure the project is environmentally safe and ensure that the company will treat them with respect during contract negotiations, during construction and in the decades the pipeline would be in operation, said Commissioner Dusty Johnson.

The PUC already dealt with many similar issues during its approval of the first TransCanada pipeline, but the West River project is different. Plans call for using 36-inch-wide pipe instead of 30-inch pipe, and the area's terrain has a dryer soil that could present erosion issues.