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Enbridge Oil - K3 State Park


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I've been out of the loop for a while. Article from Daily Journal. Not sure if this is old news or not....

 

Pipeline construction to start soon; Kankakee River water will be used for testing

Robert Themer

rthemer@daily-journal.com

815-937-3369 | Posted: Monday, February 23, 2015 9:39 am

Work is expected to begin soon on a 79-mile pipeline through The Daily Journal area to carry heavy crude oil to a Griffith, Ind., terminal from the tar sand fields of North Dakota and western Canada.

Canadian-based Enbridge Energy Co. plans to start building the 36-inch diameter pipeline in early to mid-March to link a terminal in Flanagan, Ill., to its terminal at Griffith, Ind. The new line will be placed on the same right-of-way of another Enbridge line that crosses Livingston, Grundy, Kankakee, Will and Cook counties in Illinois and Lake County, Ind.

The site where a heavy crude oil pipeline is planned along existing Enbridge Energy right-of-way through Kankakee River State Park. The new 36-inch diameter line will run 79 miles from Flanagan, Ill. to Griffith, Ind. carrying the first tar sands oil by pipeline to the northwest Indiana refinery.

The tar sands crude reaches Enbridge's Flanagan

terminal via a decades-old Canada-U.S. pipeline,

which had new links built starting in 2010 to the tar

sand areas in both countries, according to Michael Barnes, Enbridge's U.S. spokesman at Houston, Texas. The new line from Flanagan to Griffith will be its first pipeline to bring tar sands oils to northwest Indiana refineries, he said.

 

The Illinois Commerce Commission already has approved the new Flanagan-Griffith crude oil line. The company now is awaiting approval from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to use water from ponds and streams along the way to test the completed pipeline, then discharge the water back into those sources.

Among the sources are the Kankakee River, west of Warner Bridge Road; Rock Creek and Alreja Pond, west of Peotone; and Crane Creek in southwestern Essex Township, and other sources in Livingston and Cook counties.

Once the pipeline is operational, there would be no recurring discharges of test water, the company stated in its EPA application.

The majority of testing is to be done with water withdrawn from and returned to the Kankakee River, about 1.7 miles west of Warner Bridge Road. One test would use 10.1 million gallons of river water. Two others would use 5.5 million gallons and one or two more at 200,000, an IEPA notice states. One or two tests would involve 165,000 gallons each from Rock Creek. Four tests would involve a maximum of 530,00 gallons from Alreja Pond. For Crane Creek, one or two tests involving 200,000 gallons.

The EPA notice said its assessment tentatively found this testing of the new pipeline is not expected to contribute increased pollution to the water sources, or in the worse case only short- term pollution with no long-term or permanent impacts to aquatic life habitat.

Public comments to the IEPA may be made until March 13 on NPSDES Permit No. IL080073 at IEPA, Bureau of Water, Division of Water Pollution Control, Permit Section, P.O. Box 19276, Springfield, Ill. 62794-9276, or by calling 217-782-0610.

Construction of the new pipeline should have no significant impact where it passes through Kankakee River State Park, or other areas, because it will be on the right-of-way that previously has been cleared and maintained for the existing line, Barnes said.

In the state park, "They are going to do general mitigation, although that has not been finalized," said Kathy Pangle, park superintendent. "I don't think they're going to have any impact more than they already had."

Two other pipelines cross the river and the park about 3 miles west of Warner Bridge. They pass through what appears on maps to be the narrowest area of the park on both sides of the river.

Enbridge has conducted public meetings about the pipeline at Schererville, Ind., and Sauk Village, and has one scheduled for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at the Lincolnshire Country Club, 390 E. Richton Road, Crete.

Based on construction timing, a public meeting will be scheduled in Kankakee at a later date, the company has announced.

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