Oil pipeline prompts fears for Nebraska farms' water

A proposed pipeline to pump oil from Canada to Texas would cut across America's agricultural heartland. Some farmers fear it could threaten the water supply to an entire region, the BBC's Ben Bevington reports from Nebraska.

"If oil gets into the water we're done," said Nebraska farmer Randy Thompson, as he stood in one of his corn fields.

"You can't drink oily water and you can't irrigate crops with it."

A Canadian company, TransCanada, is seeking US government permission to build a pipeline that would carry more than half a million barrels of oil per day across Nebraska and over the Ogallala aquifer, which provides drinking water to two million people in the region.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10642834

snip from the article>

In Nebraska, the proposed pipeline would be buried 4ft (1.2m) underground.

Mr Thompson says that would mean it sits in groundwater most of the year because the water table is so high.

"The heartbeat of our state is water supply," he said. "I'm concerned it could get contaminated."

Mr Thompson's family has farmed this stretch of land on the River Platte for 35 years. He says he is not seeking a showdown with the oil industry, and wonders why the pipeline cannot simply be re-routed.

"I just don't understand why we'd put our aquifer at risk," he said.

"Of course they'll try to make it safe. But recent events in the Gulf of Mexico with BP prove nothing is 100% fail-proof. Anything man-made will eventually fail."

snip>

and all of a sudden they are concerned? This after fawning over the drill baby drillers? Hmm let me see if I can feign some concern for you... Well I tried.

They didn't seem to have much of a problem with Enbridge's pipeline.

http://www.enbridge-expansion.com/expansion/main.aspx?id=1218

I wish they'd scrap them both, it would be a good step in slowing down the destruction up here.

But :wow: