Public Comment. Volume III - Montana Legislature

Aissoulim
- -- online
Preferable, maybe. Desirable? Hardly.
Sunday, Sept. 26,1999
Missoulian Editorial
The U.S. Forest Service this week declared a route-paralleling Interstate 90 from Missoula
to Kingston, Idaho, the "preferred" route for Yellowstone Pipe Line Co. to build a new
pipeline to carry gasoline and other fuels.
The pipeline company doesn't like this, because this is one of the most expensive possible
routes through western Montana. But the Forest Service says this route is preferred
because it appears to be the route creating the least impact on people and the environment.
Preferable to what, though? Preferable to running the pipeline along YPL's desired route
up through the Ninemile Valley? Maybe. But preferable to even worse alternatives isn't
the same as saying the accident-prone YPL pipeline is particularly desirable along any
route through western Montana.
Even along the Missoula-Kingston route that the Forest Service prefers as having the least
likely impact on people and the environment, this is an unpalatable proposal. How so?
Turn to the Forest Service's analysis of the preferred route and let us count the ways:
Number of pipeline spills and leaks experienced since 1954: 7 1.
Number of fuel spills of 100,000 gallons or more: 14.
Number of spills of 50,000 gallons or more: 20.
Total gallons of fuel leaked by YPL to date: 3.5 million.
Miles of proposed construction on very steep slopes: 14.6.
Miles of moderate to high slope failure potential: 39.4.
Miles of high soil-liquefaction potential: 52.
Acres of poor reclamation potential after construction: 154.
Water courses crossed: 107.
Water quality-limited streams affected by construction: 32
Sediment production within first year of construction: 72 tons.
Number of new Clark Fork River crossings: 5.
Number of new Clark Fork crossings on existing bridges: 2.
Miles of highly sensitive aquifer susceptible to spills: 112.
EQC Eminent Domain Study -93-