“No man may poison the people for private profit.” – Theodore Roosevelt
On January 22, 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt said, “the public welfare outweighs the right to private gain.” Today our concern is with clean water and the destruction of life from chemical spills. Pipelines are not safe, spills on rivers and private land are frequent, unavoidable and deadly.
To stop the Diamond Pipeline, we need to understand the details of how the line was approved. We are in for a long, nasty fight against frackers willing to do whatever it takes to export oil and gas. Frackers see money at the end of the line, others see global extinction.
How did the Pipeline get into Arkansas?
Pipelines are clandestine operations conducted by governmental departments or agencies to assure secrecy. Knowing what transpired from 2013 to 2016 in Arkansas is a good way to stop Diamond. The plan was simple: take the easements, clear the rights-of-way, and get approval for the waterway crossings and navigation. Who are the agencies, people, and money behind the black snake?
Pipeline Characters
DP: Plains All-American, aka Diamond Pipeline, aka DP Pipeline
Lee: Stephen R. Lee, Manager of Engineering, Plains All-American, and Engineering and Construction Project Manager for the design and construction of the Diamond Pipeline
PSC: Arkansas Public Service Commission. They represent Public Utilities, trust what utilities say, and work with blinders. Interveners are responsible to challenge and counter claims made by the Public Utilities. PSC does not grant permits, but makes many procedural decisions to help utilities get projects done. PSC makes the assumption utilities know what they do and ask only for reasonable permits. PSC helps the public who wish to intervene with the rules, and posts public comments in the docket.
Mr. Henry: Robert Henry, the PSC staff’s chief of pipeline safety.
HJS: The Honorable Administrative Law Judge Susan E. D’Auteuil. She awards permits.
USACE: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District.
CLW: Clarksville Light and Water, Danna Schneider, John Lester.
TPTB: The powers that be: Arkansas Department of Health, Department of Quality, Attorney General, Governor, and others.
ACD: Arkansas Congressional Delegation to the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
Project Timeline
USACE gave DP a National permit for their easements in exchange for substantial financial assurances. Their only concern was restoring the banks of over 500 water crossings.
Lee played the lead role with PSC. His sworn testimony shows he lied, hid information, imagined people and meetings, and failed to provide full engineering specifications for the line. When asked, “What is more important than water?” Lee said “That answer may depend on who you ask when selecting a pipeline route. Mr. Lester might very well say, ‘Nothing,’ but Native American tribes may respond that burial grounds and sacred artifacts are more important than a supplemental water source.” Lee did not answer the most important question in the proceedings. Lee must think oil is more important than water. The concepts of tribal Sacred Lands, and Sacred Sites and Mother Earth are out of his reach.
The PSC ignored the fact DP is not an Arkansas Public Utility. PSC proposed only three days to intervene! This outrageous collusion with DP was denied by HJS, who correctly gave people 30 days to intervene. Without public notification there is no difference between 3 or 30 days, it is all a sham. Mr. Henry, without taking a peek at the banks of the Mississippi River, told the judge the pipeline is safe.
How do we stop the Pipeline?
“Things come apart easily when they have been held together with lies.” – Dorothy Allison. The DP approval was a clandestine multi-year operation by two agencies, USCAE and PUC. TPTB and ACD need to stand up for Arkansans, turning their heads the other way is unacceptable.
How do you kill a black polluting oil snake?
“If you see a snake, just kill it – don’t appoint a committee on snakes,” said Ross Perot. Please visit SacredStoneCamp.org to see how you can help.
Dr. Luis Contreras
Please see my proposal for a Safer line, Diamond Pipeline 2.0
Nov 2, 2016
Some people say Arkansas is a Bannana Republic
They are wrong, we don’ grow bannanas
I very much appreciate the information from Luis Contreras and will join the facebook group mentioned above as this is a crucial issue.
Thank you Nancy. The U.N. is sending a delegation to help Native Americans and defend their rights.
Arkansans will not get U.N. support, we pay $9 million per year for the Arkansas US Congressional Delegation, six lucky people that get 36 weeks paid vacation and $1000 per month to pay for a new car. You know what happens when you sent anyone of them a request.
Wednesday, there will be an update on this pipeline: Diamond Pipeline 2.0, designed for safety
Stop the Diamond Pipeline. Join our facebook group. This pipeline crosses ALL of Arkansas’ watersheds including those marked “sensitive”. We like to fish in Arkansas… would you like to eat oil? This pipeline does NOTHING for Arkansas. Don’t forget that little tid bit.
Thank you Amanda, we get nothing but chemical warfare. #DP2.0
Digging tunnels under wide rivers to construct pipelines is not safe, no it is NOT.
The opinions of Captain Lee and the PUC Pipeline Safety Officer, Mr. Henry, are dishonest, biased, false, and plain wrong. Based on the opinion of these two people, the Arkansas PUC gave a perpetual permit, as stated in Order 4, APSC docket 16-083-U, by the Honorable Judge Susan: “Therefore, Mr. Henry recommended that DP should be granted approval to operate and maintain the requested navigable water crossings of the Arkansas River, the Illinois Bayou, the White River, the St. Francis River, and the Mississippi River.”
The article on a water pipeline under the Kings River, in this newspaper, says:
“Engineer Chris Hall of McGoodwin, Williams and Yates told the board the attempt to bore a tunnel under the Kings River met difficulties at every step. The borings found rock, then gravel, then rock, and then gravel. Hall said they were looking for solid rock because gravel sinks into the boring. At one point the drillers hit “a river under the river,” and Hall described it. After more borings, the team realized they might have to go much deeper than expected which would mean starting the tunnel much farther back.”
Engineer, Chris Hall, is an expert. Lee and Henry need to get out of their office and smell a river.
Reading about pipelines is easy, building one takes years of experience. Building a safe pipeline requires seamless pipes and a team of geologists and experts, not the crew DP hires.
All the stuff on fracking and pipelines is a waste of time – Sunlight provides simple solutions, without the destruction of Sacred Sites, private property rights, and hired goons.
Please read the comments on the Kings River Pipeline article.
http://eureka.news/one-pipeline-ready-kings-river-tunnel-arduous/
With so many issues, it is easy to miss the most important. Fracking and greed are destroying the fabric of our nation and destroying our economy. Shale oil pipelines for exports are the result of Fracking.
The use of heavy armed vehicles and helicopters against peaceful brave Water Protectors is beyond comprehension.
Fracking uses millions of gallons of fresh water to extract low-value shale oil, and produce wastewater taken out of the water cycle to end up contaminating aquifers from injection wells. Water is a precious gift of life. We waste it, pretending it has no value, while other countries run dry. When that happens, you will see displaced hungry people at your door.