Recent North Dakota oil spill raises alarms about Keystone XL pipeline
“It’s not a question of if, but when”
Organizations opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline are pointing to a September oil spill that leaked 865,000 gallons of oil (at least 20,600 barrels) across seven acres a North Dakota farm as an example of what a spill of the same magnitude would mean for landowners along the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline route.
“The spill on Steven Jensen’s farm is devastating,” said Bold Nebraska Executive Director Jane Kleeb. “It will ruin his livelihood, to say nothing of the health risks. Now imagine if that spill were tar sands and it had occurred over the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides fresh water to millions of Americans. The North Dakota spill was bad enough. A tar sands spill on the Ogallala would be even worse.”