Plans for a proposed Canadian oil pipeline to pass through western Iowa have been scrapped. Officials with TransCanada Oil/Keystone Pipeline say the pipeline, which would have transported 435-thousand barrels of oil a day from oil fields in Hardisty, Alberta, to storage facilities in southern Illinois, will run through Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, not western Iowa, as was proposed at land owner meetings held last fall. The 18-hundred and 30-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline will enter the U.S. through North Dakota, from Manitoba, and will be laid four-feet underground.
Officials say the route for the pipeline was changed because of public response to the initial route, and increased commercial interest. Western Iowa Republican Representative Clel Baudler, from Greenfield, had said last year, if the pipeline were to pass through the state, it could have provided a major source of revenue for property owners and the host counties.