Pipeline Workforce Camps In Focus

This is the second of two articles in The Courier regarding concerns about the proposed Valley County Keystone XL pipeline workforce camps.TransCanada officials visited recently and participated in a public hearing where the plans were discussed.

A landowner only a few hundred feet from the Hinsdale camp stated that he had concerns with the landowner keeping a trailer park at the location in the future. He also had concerns with the road conditions and traffic, perhaps someone out enjoying the mud and tearing up the dirt roads.

Alan Lietz, the pipeline project manager for Montana, addressed the question and repeated that the landowner would have to go through a permit process to keep anything and that TransCanada would be planning on taking their structures. He also explained that water, electric and other services would be built to be temporary. The process of keeping the camps would have to go through the county.

When addressing the roads he said that Morrison-Mairele (the same company assessing Glasgow's Water Treatment Plant) had analyzed the roads before the build. They have plans to fix and recondition roads in the county.

A Fort Peck resident voiced similar concerns on MDU Road. Alan explained at that point that there would only be one peak point where all 1,200 workers would be on the camp. He said it would be a lot like a bell curve, with six to nine months being around the peak, only one to two months at the peak. They said that there were no plans for the company to use that road, but they couldn't stop workers from driving on a public road.

Dan Forbes, an employee that specializes in permits who was from Miles City for TransCanada, explained that they had worked with the road department and the county commissioners and had a pre construction agreement to repair, reconstruct, or rebuild a few roads. Some would need to be widened to make it safer for trucks to pass. He said that they planned to leave the roads in better conditions. He added that dust was a concern and they had already made an agreement to mitigate dust. They planned to use water, gravel and magnesium chloride.

Another concern on school traffic came up during the meeting. A land owner explained that he had two young girls that had a bus stop near the camp. Rick Perkins, senor project manager of logistics and services for TransCanada on pipeline projects, said that during the traffic analysis, they estimated 300-350 vehicles moving through the area from 6:30 to 8 a.m. He said that that type of issue could be addressed at the safety meeting and it was added that flaggers could be provided if needed.

Bud Anderson, an employee of Western Energy Planning who is independently contracted to TransCanada, stated that those issues were addressed in Baker, with concerns during the harvest and school. He explained that the workers would only be around for a portion of the year, as the camps would close down from December through late April.

It was also asked how the pipelines would be brought in. Perkins stated that trucks would be brought in to haul the pipeline to pipe yards that would be located every 30 miles along the path. He said that those locations had already been determined and that we would see increased truck traffic coming from Regina, Canada, and from North Dakota.

Travis Kelley, regional vice president for Target Logistics Management, also added that there would be a helipad on site. He said that landowners that were close that had cattle could contact them with issues that the helicopter might bring up. Perkins added that it would be used between six and eight times a week.

When asked about locals being hired for work, Lietz explained that it was usually union contracts made. He said that Montanans could get a job by visiting the Northern Border office, or going to their website to apply to be a vendor, or look at direct employment. He said that construction companies tended to look for local unions for contacts. He said that they also hold job fairs and have public meetings for contractors to bid.

Kelley added that because his workers weren't union, they could hire locals. He said his average workers worked 84 hours a week at $10 an hour, leaving 44 hours of overtime at $15 an hour.

County planner Renee Clampitt ended the meeting by reading off some of the conditions that the county required. Some of those conditions included utility lines under the ground, sewage and water systems to be reviewed by DEQ and planning for storm water drainage. To receive a copy of those conditions you can contact the county.

The Valley County Commissioners met Wednesday, March 4, during their weekly discussion and decisions meeting to finish up and fine tune the conditions for the man camp permits. Commissioner Bruce Peterson explained that he had concerns with one of the conditions and wanted to be sure that the language included that the land would be returned to its original condition.

There was some slight discussion on if landowners wanted something to be left behind for their own use, like gravel, that the negotiation would be done with TransCanada and the land owners. Commissioner Dave Reinhardt added that what is done with materials would be up to TransCanada as long as it the land would be returned. They approved the permitting, pending the approval of Valley County Attorney Nicholas Murnion.

A Little Politics

“Honestly the wind has been taken out of our sails a bit,” Perkins said. “We may be waiting until Obama leaves the office.”

Anderson said that he had just heard that President Obama had recently been interviewed and said that the U.S. Department of State would have an answer within a few weeks or months. Anderson has also been making his rounds in the local community giving updates on the project.

Lietz started out the meeting stating that they've had to plan and re plan on the project. He told the crowd that the demand is there to move product and the project makes senses, he said that there was a process in place and they had been going through that process.

“I'm a little more optimistic, it's not a matter of if, but when it will be built,” Lietz said.

A question on where the oil was going if the pipeline were to be completed came up. Perkins said that they've been delivering oil to Illinois refineries for five years now and that they would be delivering to the domestic Gulf Coast refineries. Lietz added that the second portion of the pipeline had already been completed from Steele City, Nebraska, to the gulf and had been delivering oil for some time now.

Lietz explained that oil moved by the railways has increased exponentially and it is a less effective and less safe practice. He said that incidents have been seen more frequently in the news, three recently, and that we were probably going to see more incidents on the railways. TransCanada already plans on moving 100,000 barrels per day from the Bakken. He said that those refineries were connected, made several different products from the oil and were able to sell the bi-products.

He said that all the arguments on greenhouse gas emissions from the pipeline weren't accurate and during their fifth Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) it showed the same thing, the carbon footprint would be smaller and the risk would be much smaller than using railcars and trucks.

“All those arguments don't make sense,” Lietz said.

Anderson added that the Express Line had already been running in Montana from the same company since 1993 and was running oil to Billings and Laurel.

Lietz addressed the possibility of oil spills, he explained that the technology was different. That they had to do an analysis, done by Morrison-Maierle, on the pipeline. He explained that their pipeline would run 40-60 feet under rivers and that even in flood events the pipeline wouldn't be an issue. He explained that pipelines, like the Bridger Pipeline, built in the 40s and 50s were dredged in and they were much closer to the river bottom. He said that these newer pipelines had internal inspections that could test for erosion.

“These are horizontal directional drills and they are 60 percent thicker than the wall of a main line,” Lietz said.

He explained that the pipeline had automated shut off valves and that it could operate on it's own power in an emergency. He said that they also had to be sure that the valves weren't in flood plains. Maintenance would continue, a regular annual inspection and testing would continue.

“No pipeline anywhere has ever been held to that standard in place,” Perkins said.

Jones added that there was also response teams that were trained in case the worst case scenario were to happen. He said that mitigation and other issues were set in play if something were to take place.

When asked why not build refineries in Canada, Lietz explained that they would have to sell to the market, with Canada being much more remote and not a large consumer of oil, it makes more sense to move the product to refineries that are already set up to sell to the market. He said they had the infrastructure in place.

Perkins gave a metaphor that it was a lot like an airline selling seats on a plane. The passengers aren't really buying the seat, they're paying for transportation. He said that TransCanada doesn't own the oil, they just move it.