Groups Sound the Alarm on Massive Tar Sands Oil Pipeline, Demand Additional Opportunity for Public Comment

Groups Sound the Alarm on Massive Tar Sands Oil Pipeline, Demand Additional Opportunity for Public Comment

President Trump on Thursday issued cross-border permit for Bridger pipeline before completing environmental review, consulting Tribes

Contacts

Perry Wheeler, Earthjustice, [email protected]

Stephanie Russell Kraft, Honor the Earth, [email protected]

Shannon James, MEIC, [email protected]

A coalition of Indigenous, conservation, and community groups today sounded the alarm on the proposed Bridger Pipeline Expansion, which could transport more tar sands oil per day than the controversial, and now defunct, Keystone XL project if approved. The project would be capable of providing up to 1.13 million barrels of oil per day. Tar sands oil is one of the world's dirtiest and environmentally destructive fuel sources. The company has kept regulators in the dark about its plans to transport tar sands oil, only acknowledging that the pipeline will carry tar sands oil when pushed by reporters. The Bridger Pipeline Expansion would revive parts of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the company notes it plans to find a partner to build a subsequent line to either Cushing, Oklahoma or to the Gulf Coast.

QUOTES FROM THE GROUPS ARE AVAILABLE HERE.

On Thursday, President Trump issued the required cross-border permit for the pipeline before completing an environmental analysis, consulting with impacted Tribes, or even informing the public about the type of oil this pipeline will transport. The permit issued by President Trump does not impact a separate Bureau of Land Management and Montana Department of Environmental Quality scoping period and permitting processes currently underway.

Organizations today submitted comments as part of that scoping period raising significant concerns and noted that the Trump administration has been noncommittal about providing additional community engagement opportunities. In the project's Federal Register notice, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management states that it "may provide additional opportunities for public participation consistent with the NEPA and DEQ MEPA processes, including a 30-day comment period on the Draft EIS." And yet, project documents indicate that Bridger is still gathering information about critical aspects of the project. For example, Bridger has not yet disclosed the locations of the temporary and permanent access roads that would be developed. Nor has it confirmed to regulators that the pipeline would carry heavy, sour crude from Canada's tar sands which would pose heightened environmental risk.

The groups noted in their scoping comments that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality already appears to be putting its finger on the scales in favor of industry. The agency granted a secret waiver to Bridger that appears to have allowed the company to omit required information from its project application. The agency appears to have granted that waiver without the public notice or public hearing required by law. The DEQ also reportedly determined this week that Bridger's application is deficient and incomplete but has not informed the public of that decision.

While the BLM and Montana Department of Environmental Quality recently hosted several public meetings across Montana and Wyoming, the groups also blasted the agencies for failing to allow for oral comment opportunities at the events, which amounted to tabling opportunities for fossil fuel industry representatives.

The consequences of a spill are more severe with the Bridger Pipeline Expansion given that it will be carrying tar sands crude. The pipeline is owned by True Companies, which has reportedly already had several significant pipeline spills, including a 50,000-gallon spill into Montana's Yellowstone River in 2015 and a 45,000-gallon spill in Wyoming in 2022. A spill would be devastating to local fisheries and economies in the Northern Rockies and could take years to clean up. The pipeline would cross the Yellowstone, Missouri, and Poplar Rivers in Montana and the Little Missouri, Belle Fourche, Cheyenne, and North Platte Rivers in Wyoming. On federal lands alone, it would cross water features like streams and rivers over 150 times. The application and plan of development submitted by Bridger Pipeline Expansion indicates the company plans to use open cut trenching to cross ephemeral and intermittent drainages and smaller perennial or seasonal streams, which could have a devastating effect. Additionally, the pipeline would cross 96 different wetland features. The route overlays numerous aquifers important for both agricultural and drinking water use, and there are municipal water systems and likely private wells along the proposed path.

The pipeline would also cut through areas of Tribal significance and important cultural uses. These areas include unceded hunting territory guaranteed to the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, Arapaho, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Mandan, and Arikara Tribal Nations under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and the "Warrior Trail" alongside Highway 212, which includes historic sites from the Great Sioux War.

The pipeline would cross the Missouri River which feeds Lake Sakakawea, the primary water supply for the Fort Berthold Reservation, home of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. Downstream, the Missouri River is a primary water supply for the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. It would also cross the West Fork of the Poplar River, immediately upstream of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, as well as the Belle Forche and Cheyenne Rivers, which surround the Black Hills - a sacred place to the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Tribal Nations.

The proposed pipeline route would also impact the habitat of numerous sensitive species, including species protected under the Endangered Species Act like the black-footed ferret, Northern long-eared bat, Preble's meadow jumping mouse, piping plover, whooping crane, and pallid sturgeon. Even before performing a full analysis, BLM's Notice of Intent admits potential impacts to habitat for whooping cranes, northern long-eared bats, pallid sturgeon, and sage-grouse.

Bridger's documents state that only about 20%, or 129 miles, of the proposed pipeline would either abut or be within existing right of ways. Bridger states that roughly 52%, or 355 miles, of the proposed pipeline would be located within 1,000 feet of existing infrastructure but would not occupy an existing pipeline right of way. As a result, Bridger's documents reflect an intent to construct roughly 313 miles of pipeline that is more than 1,000 feet away from any existing pipeline infrastructure.

Earthjustice submitted comments on behalf of 350 Montana, Center for Biological Diversity, Families for a Livable Climate, Honor the Earth, Montana Environmental Information Center, Montana Health and Climate, Mountain Mamas, Red Medicine LLC, Sierra Club, Western Environmental Law Center, Western Organization of Resource Councils, Western Watersheds Project, Wild Montana, WildEarth Guardians, and Wyoming Outdoor Council.

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