Funds being raised to stop Diamond Pipeline

By Becky Gillette – Local climate change activist Jan Schaper is encouraging folks to give $10 for a legal challenge to the 440-mile-long, 20-in. diameter Diamond Pipeline that has been approved to carry crude oil from Cushing, Okla. across Arkansas to Memphis, Tenn.

“I am working with the group Arkansas Water Guardians to raise this money,” Schaper said. “We need $25,000 to start. That’s 2,500 people giving $10 each or some combination of that math.”

Schaper is not directly involved in the legal case.

“I understand it is being headed by an experienced attorney, and I believe it’s worth every non-violent effort to stop this pipeline,” she said.    

Schaper said a growing number of Arkansans are concerned about the potential environmental impacts from building the large pipeline “that feels like Dakota Access in our own backyard. Construction is already underway.”

She gave the following reasons for the pipeline being particularly problematic:

1. It is being built by Plains All American Pipeline L.P., which has one of the worst safety records in the business. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2015 that the company had 175 safety and maintenance violations since 2006. That was prior to a 105,000-gallon oil leak offshore in California. The Times reported that the company has had the fifth-largest number of infractions among more than 1,700 pipeline operators in a database maintained by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
2. The pipeline is mapped to cross 500 waterways and will be inserted under the Arkansas River, the Illinois Bayou, the White, the Saint Francis and the Mississippi Rivers.
3. Increased seismic activity likely caused by fracking in Oklahoma is now occurring in areas of the pipeline route, particularly in Oklahoma.

“The question about oil pipelines is not if they will leak, but when,” Schaper said. “Even if a company has shut off valves every 10 miles on the pipeline, if a breach occurs there are still 10 miles of oil that has to go somewhere. And that somewhere is our Arkansas waterways and landscape. If a reminder is needed about the dangers of oil pipelines in Arkansas, we need only talk to our fellow Arkansans in Mayflower. They endured the 2013 Exxon oil spill, and some are still suffering through the health effects of that mess.”

Donations for the legal challenge can be made at www.gofundme.com/stop-diamond-pipeline.

Calls for comment to Plains All American Pipeline L.P. were not returned. On its website, the company states, “U.S. Department of Transportation statistics show that underground pipelines are one of the safest modes of transporting crude oil. The Diamond Pipeline is a federally regulated interstate pipeline and is subject to rigorous design, construction, operation and maintenance standards. The Diamond Pipeline will exceed the United States Department of Transportation pipeline standards and will include a number of safety elements. New pipe will be manufactured to exceed industry standards and specifications. The pipeline will be laid at an increased depth to reduce susceptibility to third-party damage.

“Additionally, the Diamond Pipeline will be remotely monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week from a centralized Control Center. These employees, known as ‘Controllers,’ have the authority to shut down the pipeline systems at any time, but they are not allowed to restart the pipeline systems until the issue has been addressed and proper authorization has been received from Operations and Control Center management. The pipeline will be monitored with regular aerial and ground surveillance patrol as well.”

The company said the $900-million project is designed for approximately 440 miles of 20-in. pipeline capable of transporting up to 200,000 barrels per day of domestic sweet crude oil.

The project is expected to create about 1,500 new contract construction positions across Oklahoma and Arkansas, with 15 permanent jobs along the route once the pipeline is completed. The company estimated it would pay about $11 million per year in property tax revenue for communities along the route of the pipeline. Construction is expected to be completed in 2017.