2 go to D.C. to protest pipeline

WASHINGTON - Two Mayflower residents who live near the site of March’s large pipeline rupture visited the State Department on Thursday to deliver a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, inviting him to inspect the damage.

Damien Byers and Genieve Long took their invitation to the front door of the State Department and held a press conference, in which they asked Kerry - who was overseas - to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast.

Opponents of the proposed route say it will carry corrosive “tar sands” oil, which can wreak havoc on old pipelines. They said the Mayflower spill, where 5,000 barrels of oil coursed out of a 22-footlong break in Exxon Mobil’s Pegasus line, should serve as a warning against constructing the new pipeline.


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On March 29, the day of the spill, Byers was driving home with his 15-month old son. He said he caught a whiff of something noxious, which immediately made him think about his home near Marcus Hook, Pa., - the home of huge oil-refinery complexes.

Byers, a 52-year-old retiree who said he was not a “tree-hugger” or “environmentalist,” said he moved from Pennsylvania to Arkansas to take advantage of the state’s natural beauty and wildlife. He said the Pegasus line runs through his property and he’s worried the spill will cause his property values to plummet.

“If it happens once, it’s going to happen again and again,” he said.

Long, a 28-year-old mother of four, said she was worried about the possibility of oil getting into the local water supply.

“Once it’s in water, it’s there to stay. Secretary Kerry, we invite you to our community to see this firsthand,” she said at the news conference.

When the two dropped off the letter, Kerry was in Rome, meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino.

Completion of the Keystone project has been stalled for several years. In 2012, while battling for re-election, President Barack Obama said he would defer action on the pipeline until the State Department issued a final report on the route’s safety risks. The State Department is responsible for signing off on the project because it crosses the U.S.-Canada border.

On March 1, the department gave the project the go ahead in a draft report. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called the State Department’s study “insufficient,” saying that alternative routes through the environmentally sensitive Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska were not considered.

Each member of Arkansas’ congressional delegation supports completion of the Keystone pipeline.

Rep. Tim Griffin, a Republican in whose district Mayflower sits, said pipelines are the safest way to transport oil.

“For the foreseeable future, we will need oil for plastics and fuel as Secretary Kerry does for his many jet flights,” Griffin said in a statement. “The Keystone pipeline has passed a battery of safety and environmental hurdles and jobs are being held up for politics.”

The All Risk, No Reward Coalition, a group of environmental and agricultural organizations formed to block the pipeline, paid for Byers and Long to make the trip to Washington.

“The current State Department analysis ignores citizens’ concerns,” said Jane Kleeb, executive director of Bold Nebraska, a member of the coalition.

This week, Exxon Mobil came under scrutiny from some members of Congress who questioned whether the company spread conflicting messages about the spill in Arkansas.

Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, a Democrat who is running for the Senate, wrote Exxon Mobil Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson on Tuesday. Markey sought clarification of “troubling and apparently conflicting information” the oil company had produced on the spill, both on its website - “Five lies they’re telling you about the Mayflower pipeline spill” - and in subsequent correspondence the company had with the EPA.

In addition to not reporting the spill as fast as it could have, Markey said the company had claimed on its website that the oil in the Pegasus pipeline was not tar-sands oil, but then told the EPA that the oil was Wasaba Heavy crude oil, a blend that the government of Alberta classifies as bitumen, or tar-sands oil.

Markey also said despite the company’s claim that Exxon Mobil will pay for the cleanup entirely, without tapping the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, the fund is being drawn down to pay for damages.

Exxon Mobil is aware of Markey’s criticism.

“We are in the process of reviewing his letter and will respond upon completion,” said company spokesman Michael Kontos in an e-mail.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 05/10/2013

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