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Heartland Oil Spills are Wake-Up Call on XL Pipeline

source: Reuters

This Easter weekend, the town of Mayflower, Arkansas, a suburb of Little Rock, had thick crude oil flowing through the streets and into nearby Lake Conway. Most residents didn't realize an Exxon Pipeline ran through their neighborhood, but the evacuated residents won't soon forget it.

In Minnesota last Wednesday, a train derailed spilling 30,000 gallons of crude oil.

These ecological disasters are wake-up calls for people in the heartland to stop the XL Tar Sands Pipeline.

Sign These Petitions to Fight the Keystone Pipeline:

The Climate Reality Project - Just Say No

EcoWatch Pipeline Petition

Sign-On.Org Petition
Act350.Org ~ Sign and Leave Comments
National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Petition

Ozarks First News

It was not the holiday weekend Mayflower resident Ryan Senia envisioned.

"Basically if it doesn't fit in our car we don't have it right now," said Senia.

His once ideal home on South Starlite Road sits vacant as oil fumes permeate the air. His neighbor Joe Bradley said, "Well we could see oil running down the road like a river."

It's all because of a ruptured oil pipeline owned by Exxon Mobile.

"Supposed to be a 20 inch pipeline that runs from Illinois to Texas."

Bradley knew nothing of the pipeline.

"I had no idea and I'm the 4th or 5th house from it," Bradley says.

On Saturday, county, city and state officials, along with Exxon Mobile, met with residents.

"This could have been much worse," said Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson. Dodson says close to 20 agencies responded within 90 minutes -- stopping the leak. He maintains they did so before any oil reached Lake Conway - a source of drinking water. Exxon and the EPA say they're monitoring air quality - but warn residents with asthma or other breathing disorders to see a doctor. And Resident Darren Hale says there are immediate concerns - like when can residents return home.

"The first one was two days and now I get here and find out two weeks, and finally after taking it to (a state representative), no one knows," said resident Darren Hale.

"We're just concerned about our property values and what Exxon is going to do for us,"

LiveScience

A train carrying crude oil from Canada into the United States derailed in Minnesota, spilling thousands of gallons of oil.

Fourteen tanker cars of a 94-car Canadian Pacific Railroad train went off the tracks near Parkers Prairie yesterday (March 27), according to the Associated Press. Three tanker cars were leaking, and one reportedly spilled most or all of its 26,000-gallon (98,000 liter) load of oil.

Cold weather may have helped minimize the damage from the oil spill, according to Dan Olson, a spokesman for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Reuters

A mile-long train hauling oil from Canada derailed, spilling 30,000 gallons of crude in western Minnesota on Wednesday, as debate rages over the environmental risks of transporting tar sands across the border.

The major spill, the first since the start of a boom in North American crude-by-rail transport three years ago, came when 14 cars on a 94-car Canadian Pacific train left the tracks about 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis near the town of Parkers Prairie, the Otter Tail Sheriff's Department said.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd, the country's second-largest railroad, said only one 26,000-gallon tank car had ruptured, adding it was a mixed freight train.

CP spokesman Ed Greenberg said he did not know if the crude was from Canada's tar sands or from conventional oil fields.

Thousands March to Protest Tar Sands Pipeline and Fracking

For the first time in 120 years the The Sierra Club is urging citizens of the U.S. and Canada to practice Civil Disobedience against the XL Pipeline, planned to carry toxic tar sands from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This weekend, many protests took place across the country, and celebrities chained themselves to the gates of the White House leading to the arrest of Michael Brune, head of the Sierra Club, Julian Bond, Darryl Hannah, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..


Protests Across the Country

Thousands of people rallied in downtown San Francisco on Sunday to urge President Obama to reject construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, an action they said would prove he is committed to fighting global warming.
The demonstration across from the Ferry Building was held at the same time as similar events in cities including Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles. The main event in Washington, D.C., drew tens of thousands of supporters in what was billed as the largest climate change rally in U.S. history.

Activists Arrested in White House Protest Over XL Pipeline

Celebrities and environmental activists, including lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and civil rights leader Julian Bond, were arrested Wednesday after tying themselves to the White House gate to protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune also was arrested – the first time in the group's 120-year history that a club leader was arrested in an act of civil disobedience. The club's board of directors approved the action as a sign of its opposition to the $7 billion pipeline, which would carry oil derived from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.



Activist Bill McKibben, actress Daryl Hannah and NASA climate scientist James Hansen also were arrested, along with more than 40 others. They were charged with failure to disperse and obey lawful orders, and released on $100 bond each.

. . . Kennedy, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a New York-based environmental group, said he was being arrested "with regret," noting that he would prefer to contest the pipeline in court – and may eventually do so.
Kennedy, whose father was an attorney general and U.S. senator, called the pipeline "a boondoggle of monumental proportions" that will "ruin the lives of millions of people," through increased carbon pollution and likely spills.

Powerful Message About Mountain Coal Removal from Kids of Appalachia

Powerful video of Appalachian children explaining the dangers of mountaintop coal removal to President Obama. Seriously - this is a must-see. It brought tears to my eyes. I was once a child just like them and felt just as strongly about pollution and mining. My wish would be that no more generations would ever have to watch mountains being destroyed for coal.

You can help:

Give a Donation Today to ILoveMountains.Org

Sign The Petition to tell President Obama "No More Excuses" ~ Stop Mountaintop Removal in the Appalachian Mountains