1980-12-15 Char-Koosta News

              PABLO, MONTANA 59855 ISSN: 0528-8592
Volume 10 Number / b
FULL MOON OF CONTINUOUS SNOW
December 15,1980
First their foot, now their hip pockets...
Council Agrees to Further Study: Negotiations to "Proceed"
If you didn't hear via the old moccasin telegraph, you read it in a local daily, or saw it on t.v.: The Tribal Council held a special meeting Dec. 5 to review Stearns-Rogers' review of the proposed Northern Tier crude oil pipeline's hoped-for reservation route.
The verdict: (1) Stearns-Rogers representatives apparently feel that NTPC's project isn't totally evil, that with further study and very careful attention to certain details, the pipeline could be lived with. (2) The Tribal Council agreed to sanction further study and although they didn't come right out and say "yes" to the pipeline, they're at least not saying "no" just yet.
We reported in March that Northern Tier had gotten its foot in the door. We
report now that they're in the door up to their hip pockets.
Back to Sterans-Rogers' report. The bulk of the morning's presentation concerned re-affirming NTPC's precautionary measures—check valves and block valves (to detect leaks and close offending sections of the line), aerial inspections of the route every two weeks, "preferential corrosion" set-ups, cement-sunk sections across streams and rivers (mostly to make sure the pipe doesn't wash away in a flood), and pressure detectors tied into a computer shut-down system.
Some of the statistics brought out were the probabilities of different kinds of spills. A minor spill of 2,000 barrels (84,000 gallons, if our math is correct)
could happen once in nine years. During the pipeline's expected economic life of at least 20 years, that's two minor spills that are statistically possible. A medium spill of up to 5,000 barrels could conceivably happen once in 15 years. Major spills of more than 5,000 barrels are rare events: statistically, these only happen once every 500 years. Any type of spill could be expected to impact on the area for 2 to 5 years.
Various other negative aspects were mentioned, as they always are in pipeline discussions—local jobs, the instability of the Jocko area and wildlife disturbance.
A new problem brought out was that of abandonment. Should NTPC decide not to use the pipeline beyond twenty (Continued on page 3)
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