Group checks Keystone pipeline’s impact on Route 66

The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline that’s supposed to eventually snake through America’s mid-section has been cussed and discussed by lawmakers and the media in recent months.

Here’s a twist to the discussion — the Oklahoma Archeological Survey conducted a survey to see whether the pipeline will impact any of the state’s cultural heritage, including Route 66.

The Oklahoma Daily reported:

Cultural heritage is any evidence of previous civilizations, such as burial grounds, remains or artifacts.

TransCanada sent the planned route of the pipeline to the survey, which compares the map to sites archeologists already know about, Brooks said.

Overall, the groups found the proposed pipeline route interfered with 88 archeological sites and 34 historic structures, according to the report given to TransCanada. Of those, 17 sites and 12 structures were considered valuable enough to recommend the company change routes. The line also crossed over Historic Route 66. […]

If the survey does fid artifacts a pipeline could damage, it suggests companies reroute it, he said. However, if the company decides it must follow a particular route, a team will go to the site where the cultural heritage was found and recover as much as it can before construction begins.

Although this isn‘t the preferred method of preserving cultural heritage, it is sometimes the only option, Brooks said.

According to TransCanada’s map of the pipeline, it would cross Route 66 in Stroud, home to the Rock Cafe and unused but still-preserved segments of old Route 66 roadway.

Unless I’m missing something, I don’t think the pipeline will have much impact on the Mother Road. The pipeline will go underground, and will simply go under the old road.

President Obama, at the urging of the State Department, at least temporarily rejected the pipeline proposal in January because there was not enough information on the impact on certain areas, particularly Nebraska, the newspaper said. Obama may revisit the issue at a later date, once the assessments are completed.

I don’t hold strong feelings about the pipeline itself one way or the other. However, a reassessment on its impact may be in order because of one big development in Oklahoma in recent months — earthquakes.

The state has experienced a swarm of hundreds of earthquakes in the past year, including a record 5.6-magnitude quake on Nov. 6.

Keystone’s risk-assessment report about seismic activity said this:

Keystone will construct all new facilities to Uniform Building Code standards. Additional engineering measures to account for seismic activity are not expected to be required due to relatively low seismic activity in the region crossed by the Keystone Pipeline Project. […]

The likelihood of earthquake damage to the Keystone Pipeline is low, as the entire Keystone Pipeline Project falls outside the USDOT-defined high earthquake hazard areas.

The problem with that report is it’s dated June 2006 — five years before the swarm of earthquakes in Oklahoma. And the pipeline will lie just a few miles from Prague and Meeker — the epicenter of the 5.6 tremblor and many other earthquakes in the past year.

It’s theorized the Oklahoma earthquakes are being caused by the by-products of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, to extract natural gas. The fracking itself isn’t thought to be causing the quakes. But the injection wells that pump used fracking liquids deep underground are drawing the blame.

Lincoln County, epicenter of many of the quakes, contains more than 180 injection wells. This Land Press, based in Tulsa, recently published a very even-handed report about fracking and the earthquakes.

It’s prudent to re-examine the Keystone Pipeline coming through a suddenly active area for earthquakes. You don’t want a 36-inch oil pipeline to rupture in the middle of Stroud — just a few miles from the swarm — during one of those quakes.

It’s a little ironic, however, that the efforts to extract one energy source may scuttle the efforts to transport another energy source.