A handful of Western Iowa counties are in-line to serve as a conduit for part of a proposed one-point-seven billion dollars oil pipeline from Canada. State Representative Clel Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield, says officials from Trans Canada Keystone Pipeline Company met with him Wednesday and told him of their plans to construct an underground pipeline that would transport approximately 400-thousand barrels per day of heavy crude oil from Alberta, Canada to markets at Wood River and Patoka, Illinois. The proposed pipeline would begin in the oil hub of Hardisty, Alberta and extend across Saskatchewan and Manitoba before entering the U.S. in North Dakota, and ending up in Illinois. The route passes through some of the counties Baulder represents in the 58th District. It’ll enter Iowa through Plymouth County in the northwest part of the state, north of Sioux City, and exit into Missouri from Ringgold County. If the 30-inch diameter pipeline becomes a reality, Baudler says it will provide a major source of revenue for those counties it passes through.”It will pay about 10-million dollars a year” in those counties annually in property tax assessment. The fact that the pipeline would be laid four-feet underground was the only issue that bothered him. He says sometimes pipelines have gone through and he’s heard complaints from property owners for several years after that their lines aren’t properly taken care of, so they end up sinking and result in a broken line. Baudler says the Trans Canada representatives helped to ease those concerns.According to Baudler, the company will begin talking with landowners in the very near future, and they will do everything possible to work with them, not against them. He says those who may be opposed to the plan need to take a look at the bigger picture.”Our reliance on foreign oils is getting us in alot of trouble world-wide”. Officials also said because of the construction of the pipeline is of a highly technical nature, there probably won’t be much local labor used to build it. Fifteen pumping stations will need to be built across the U.S. and at least three of those will be built in Iowa. For more information, log onto www.transcanada.com/keystone.
