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East Oregonian
Friday, November 17, 2017
Keystone pipeline leaks 210K gallons of oil
AMHERST, S.D. (AP) — Tran-
sCanada Corp.’s Keystone pipeline
leaked an estimated 210,000 gallons
of oil onto agricultural land in north-
eastern South Dakota, the company
and state regulators said Thursday,
but state offi cials don’t believe the
leak polluted any surface water
bodies or drinking water systems.
Crews shut down the pipeline
Thursday morning and activated
emergency response procedures
after a drop in pressure was detected
resulting from the leak south of a
pump station in Marshall County,
TransCanada said in a statement.
The cause was being investigated.
Discovery of the leak comes
just days before Nebraska regu-
lators are scheduled to announce
their decision Monday whether to
approve the proposed Keystone
XL oil pipeline, an expansion that
would boost the amount of oil Tran-
sCanada is now shipping through
the existing line, which is known
simply as Keystone. The expansion
has faced fi erce opposition from
environmental groups, American
Indian tribes and some landowners.
Brian Walsh, an environmental
scientist manager at the South
Dakota Department of Environment
and Natural Resources, said the
state has sent a staff member to the
site of the leak in a rural area near
the border with North Dakota about
250 miles west of Minneapolis.
“Ultimately, the cleanup respon-
sibility lies with TransCanada, and
they’ll have to clean it up in compli-
ance with our state regulations,”
Walsh said.
TransCanada said in its state-
ment that it expected the pipeline to
remain shut down as the company
responds to the leak. It did not offer
a time estimate, and a spokesman
didn’t immediately return a tele-
phone message from The Associ-
ated Press.
The federal Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Admin-
istration didn’t immediately return
an email requesting additional infor-
mation from The AP. Since 2010,
companies have reported 17 spills
bigger than the leak announced
Thursday, topping 210,000 gallons
of crude oil or refi ned petroleum
products, according to U.S. Depart-
ment of Transportation records.
The existing Keystone pipeline
transports crude from Canada to
refi neries in Illinois and Oklahoma,
passing through the eastern Dakotas,
Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. It
can handle nearly 600,000 barrels
daily, or about 23 million gallons.
TransCanada says on its website
that the company has safely trans-
ported more than 1.5 billion barrels
of oil, or about 63 billion gallons,
through the system since operations
began in 2010.
President Donald Trump issued
a federal permit for the expansion
project in March even though it had
been rejected by the Obama admin-
istration. The Keystone XL project
would move crude oil from Alberta,
Canada, across Montana and South
Dakota to Nebraska, where it would
connect with existing pipelines
feeding refi neries along the Gulf
Coast.
Kent Moeckly, a member of
conservation and family agriculture
group Dakota Rural Action, who
opposed the Keystone pipeline, said
he drove to land he owns near the
site of the spill Thursday.
“There’s a heck of a south wind
up here today, and man it just stunk
of crude oil,” said Moeckly, whose
property is crossed by the pipeline.
“A mile away, but I’ll tell you it was
like it was next door.”
A leak and spill in southeastern
South Dakota in April 2016
prompted a weeklong shutdown of
the pipeline. TransCanada estimated
that just under 17,000 gallons (405
barrels) of oil spilled onto private
land during that leak. Federal
regulators said an “anomaly” on a
weld on the pipeline was to blame.
No waterways or aquifers were
affected.
TransCanada said at the time
that the leak was the fi rst detected
on the pipeline since it began oper-
ating, though there had been leaks
at pumping stations. One of those
leaks happened in southeastern
North Dakota in May 2011, when
14,000 gallons spilled after a valve
failed at a pumping station near the
South Dakota border.
Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels
campaign director Kelly Martin
said in a statement that the only
way to protect against leaks in the
future is for Nebraska to reject the
Keystone XL pipeline.
“We’ve always said it’s not
a question of whether a pipeline
will spill, but when, and today
TransCanada is making our case for
us,” Martin said.
SAMPSON: Married for 65 years
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Angie Connell, Heidi Carver, Blair Larsen, Steve McCoy, Kim Guzman, Bennett Chris-
tianson and Ilah Munro, holding her daughter Kimber, 3, are all concerned citizens
that want a four-way stop installed at the intersection of Feedville Road and Ed-
wards Road due to the high volume of vehicle accidents at that intersection.
CROSSING: ‘People blow through
those stop signs all the time’
Continued from 1A
wheel — but you can’t hang
on to anything.”
Angela Ditchen, who also
lives near the intersection,
said her husband, Darren, and
her sons were involved in a
crash in March 2014 where
an elderly woman passenger
died, and the driver of the
car was taken to the hospital.
Ditchen said her husband’s
car fl ipped, he tore a muscle
in his hand, and her youngest
son had a seatbelt burn. But
other than that, they had few
injuries.
“They
were
lucky,”
Ditchen said. “I don’t know
how my boys are alive.”
Although the physical
impact was fairly minor,
Ditchen said the accident has
had a lasting impact on her
husband.
“Darren gets so much
anxiety every time he passes
that (intersection),” she said.
“It was so hard. My family
walked away, but the other
family lost their people.”
Carry Munro, a fi refi ghter
and paramedic with UCFD,
also lives near the intersec-
tion. He said in the 16 and
a half years he’s been in the
area, he can’t remember how
many wrecks he’s been to at
that spot.
“People blow through
those stop signs all the time,”
he said.
“When Dustin had his
accident, ODOT did a study
and said that on average, 10
people a day run that stop
sign,” Carver said.
Residents don’t under-
stand why county offi cials
haven’t added another stop
sign at the intersection.
“We have fi ve boys and
(the Ditchens) have three
kids getting close to driving
age,” Carver said. “As people
who live out there, we want
to know — why hasn’t there
been a traffi c revision out
there?”
Sheriff Terry Rowan said
they had been looking at the
intersection, and comparing it
to others in the area.
“The intersection at Loop
and South Edwards, that’s a
four-way stop sign,” Rowan
said. “And there have been no
fatalities there.”
Rowan said that off the
top of his head, he couldn’t
think of an intersection in the
county that had seen as many
accidents as the Feedville and
Edwards intersection.
According to Umatilla
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pieces of wrecked vehicles, accident reconstruction
paint, and a deep rut in the dirt are the remaining ev-
idence of a two vehicle crash that injured two people
November 9, at the intersection of Edwards Road and
Feedville Road south of Hermiston.
County Sheriff’s Offi ce
records, since 2012 there
have been 11 crashes at that
intersection. Two were fatal,
two have resulted in major
injuries, three yielded minor
injuries and four were non-in-
jury accidents. One resulted
in a DUII arrest.
Undersheriff
Jim
Littlefi eld said there may
be additional crashes at the
location that Stanfi eld Police
or Oregon State Police have
responded to.
Stopping Traffi c
Carver said she has
discussed the issue with
commissioners Bill Elfering
and Larry Givens, as recently
as last week, after the latest
accident.
Elfering said he is aware of
the problems at the intersec-
tion and that commissioners
have discussed it before and
will do so again at their board
meeting Nov. 22.
He said drivers don’t seem
to heed the stop sign that’s
already there, making him
question if they would pay
attention to another one.
“There’s a lot of visibility
up and down Feedville, so
people think they can see and
people just buzz it off,” he
said.
He said since last week’s
accident, the sheriff has been
discussing a four-way stop at
that intersection.
Elfering said the decision
to get any sort of traffi c
revision would need to be
approved by the board of
commissioners.
He said he didn’t know if
the board would take action
on the intersection at their
next meeting, but they will
discuss it.
“We’ll take testimony
from the sheriff, from public
works about what works and
what doesn’t,” he said.
Elfering said as of now,
there were several potential
solutions to that stop — a
four-way stop, a blinking
light or a blinking stop sign,
as some intersections in
Hermiston have.
But he said the commis-
sion is concerned that a
blinking light would become
an object of target practice in
a more rural area.
“One shot to those, they
cost $1,500 apiece,” he said.
Elfering said after the fatal
accident in 2016, the commis-
sion discussed making a
change to the intersection.
Commissioners settled on
replacing the regulation stop
sign with a larger one.
“It’s very visible from a
distance.”
He added that some
level of human error is also
involved with many of the
crashes.
Carver said she has been
frustrated with the lack of
action on the intersection,
but it won’t stop her from
continuing to push for a traffi c
revision.
“After Dustin’s accident,
they basically told me it
would take an act of God to
get a sign put there,” she said.
“Well, I’m god.”
Other residents say a solu-
tion is even more urgent with
the population growth in the
area, which has led to more
traffi c on the rural road.
“There’s just a lot more
people out there,” Scott said.
“You just never know if
they’re going to stop or not.”
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com.
years ago, he protested
in frigid winter weather
against transportation of
megaloads of oil refi nery
equipment to extract oil
in Canada. The megaloads
weighed more than 900,000
pounds and spanned 400
feet long and 22 feet wide.
Their passage, he said, was
an affront to his people’s
“traditional values and
ecological integrity.”
On this day, Sampson
was on the minds of the
men as they prepared to
honor him. Sampson’s son
Don pulled into the drive
and talked about his father.
“He was a very humble,
but very strong advocate
for the tribe,” Don said.
“Our treaty rights, our
traditional foods, our
culture.”
“He fought for our way
of life,” said Eagleheart,
leaning against a pickup
truck. “He stood up.”
They said Sampson’s
deeply embedded values
came
partially
from
growing up in his rich
native culture — riding
horses, fi shing the rivers
and hunting in the forest.
“He fi shed Celilo as a
young man,” Don said.
“He rode horses and had
20 of his own. All summer
long, he’d ride into the
mountains with his cousins
and they’d round up
horses. They’d bring back
hundreds.”
Don’s
smartphone
vibrated and he glanced
at the screen. It was a text
from Robert Kennedy Jr.
“I just heard the sad
news about Chief Carl,”
Kennedy had texted. “You
and your family are in my
prayers. Let me know if I
can be helpful. Love to you
all.”
The message joined
others from luminaries
such as former Oregon
Governor Ted Kulongoski
Contributed photo
Chief Carl Sampson sits with great-granddaughters
Alanah Eagleheart and Avery Quaempts at the 2016
Indian Beauty Pageant.
“When he said something, you listened
because you knew it was important.”
— Arleta Sampson, Carl Sampson’s wife
and Portland business
magnate Jordan Schnitzer.
Later, by phone to the
EO, Jordan Schnitzer
praised Sampson and said
he planned to travel Friday
to attend the Washaat
service at the Mission
Longhouse.
“Chief Carl Sampson
was a remarkable man,”
Schnitzer said. “Not only
was he the chief of a proud
tribe, he was a proud
Oregonian and a bridge
between cultures.”
Don put his phone back
in his pocket and resumed
his remembrances.
In his youth, Don
said his father boxed in
the reservation version
of Golden Gloves. He
also played football and
basketball during years
at Pendleton High School
and the Chemawa Indian
School in Salem. In his
later years, he enjoyed
sports by watching from
the grandstands.
Sampson’s health had
weakened of late, but he
hadn’t stopped living life.
The night before his death,
he cheered his grandson,
Dylan Abrahamsen, who
played with his Sunridge
Middle School basketball
team. On Thursday Dylan
was scheduled to play
again but he assumed
he would skip the trip in
honor of his grandfather.
Sampson’s wife, Arleta,
told Dylan to go.
“I told him to go and
play hard for his grandpa,”
said Arleta, who had
fi nished cleaning her
house with rose water and
stepped out to the porch.
She smiled when she
thought of the man who
once hitchhiked all the
way from Texas — where
he was stationed in the Air
Force — to ask her hand in
marriage. They enjoyed 65
years together.
She said people listened
to Carl when he spoke.
“When
he
said
something, you listened
because you knew it was
important,” Arleta said.
———
Contact Kathy Aney
at kaney@eastoregonian.
com or call 541-966-0810.
DUII: State total for DUII arrests in 2016 was 8,484
Continued from 1A
offi cers, and two offi cers
attending the month-long
supervisor training in
Plano, Texas,” he said.
All the change, he
said, helps account for
the decline in arrests. But
Hermiston police catching
impaired drivers could take
a quick tick up.
“Even though he had a
lot of change, we will be
out there in an overtime
capacity working on grants
specifi c to impaired driving
this
holiday
season,”
Edmiston said. “It’s still
important for us to be
proactive.”
He also said staff are
settling into their new
roles and the department
is gaining traction after
so much transition. But
some shake-up is coming.
Edmiston said he is rear-
ranging team assignments
for his offi cers. Having
different offi cers work
together, he said, is a
benefi t for the department.
Pendleton Police Chief
Stuart Roberts said while
the number of DUII arrests
from 2016 and this year
are consistent, they are
down from the 158 the
department had in 2015.
Like his Hermiston coun-
terpart, Roberts said these
By the numbers
Police department arrest totals for driving under
the infl uence of intoxicants:
YEAR
HERMISTON
PENDLETON
2014
103
110
2015
83
158
2016
90
137
119
2017*
50
*as of mid November
fl uctuations have more to
do with staffi ng than a lack
of intoxicated drivers.
Oregon law enforce-
ment agencies made 3,915
arrests for DUII through
the second quarter of this
year, according to the
“State Of Oregon Report
Of Criminal Offenses And
Arrests.” The statewide
total for 2016 was 8,484
and 2015 was 7,987.
Crashes
involving
drunk drivers increases this
time of year. According
to the National Highway
Traffi c Safety Administra-
tion, 37,461 people died
in traffi c crashes in 2016,
and 28 percent (10,497)
of those fatalities were in
crashes with a driver who
had a blood alcohol level
over the legal limit of .08
percent.
That same year, 781
people died in drunk-driv-
ing-related crashes in
December alone. During
Decembers from 2012-
2016, the NHTSA reports
28 percent of crash fatal-
ities — 3,995 people —
involved a drunk driver.
Roberts urged folks who
go out to drink to be aware
of how alcohol affects the
brain and plan accordingly.
Often police encounter
someone who does not
plan on drinking, he said,
but after a few decides to
drive home. The effects of
alcohol are not immediate
and people think they are
fi ne, he said, when alcohol
is actually compromising
their judgment and reaction
time.
“Make arrangements for
someone to pick you up,”
Roberts said, “or have a
designated driver.”
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.