The Nebraska StatePaper.com reports that, “Maude Barlow, best-selling author and former senior adviser on water to the United Nations General Assembly, will give the keynote address for the James E. Smith Midwest Conference on World Affairs, taking place Monday and Tuesday at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The theme of the conference is ‘Water and Survival: From the Platte to the Nile’. Barlow’s presentation, ‘The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water’, is free and open to the public.”
Maude speaks at 7:30 pm CST (8:30 pm ET) this evening at the Drake Theatre.
A significant portion of the Ogallala aquifer rests under Nebraska. Many concerns have been expressed in Nebraska about the potential impact of the proposed Keystone pipeline, which is to be built to carry tar sands bitumen from northern Alberta to Texas.
The Journal Star, a newspaper in Nebraska, has reported that, “Much of the concern directed at the 254-mile portion of the route of the (Keystone XL) underground petroleum line through Nebraska involved the Ogallala Aquifer.” A landowner in the area who attended a consultation on the pipeline commented, “I can’t see how they can even consider this pipeline and take the chance of it ruining the groundwater in Nebraska.”
In another article the Journal Star reports, “(Local) banker Dan Kramer has been thumbing through (a draft environmental impact statement) to try to understand how an underground petroleum pipeline can be built through the Nebraska Sandhills without posing a serious threat to one of the state’s most treasured resources (the massive Ogallala Aquifer).
The Beatrice Daily Sun, another newspaper in Nebraska, reports that, “One of Duane Hovorka’s (the executive director of the Nebraska wildlife federation) biggest concerns is the pipeline running through the Nebraska Sandhills. He said the soil in the Sandhills has recently stabilized but is still fragile. …Hovorka also expressed concerns with the wetlands and streams in the area. He cited different species of wildlife who make habitat in those areas and said even a small leak in a pipeline could cause major problems. Bruce and Marjorie Kennedy from rural Malcolm, expressed the same concerns as Hovorka. …Bruce also inquired about how the pipeline will affect the Ogallala Aquifer and the Niobrara River. An official said the pipeline does indeed cross the Niobrara River, but the area where it crosses has been moved away from the national scenic portion of the river.”
Postmedia News reported last week that, “The Keystone XL project has been in limbo since last July, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raised concerns about greenhouse gas emissions associated with oilsands production and safety contingencies in the event of a spill along the pipeline’s route. The State Department has the authority to grant a presidential permit because the 3,200-kilometre pipeline would cross an international border. It is now weighing whether to conduct a supplemental environmental impact study, with a decision on the next step expected as early as this spring.”
For more information on Maude’s visit to Nebraska today, please see http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2011/03/07/4d71919fbe4c5 and http://www.unk.edu/worldaffairs/. For more on the Keystone pipeline, see http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6434.
