Landowners request bonds as protection along pipeline

Some landowners want the state Public Utilities Commission to require TransCanada to post additional bonds for the company’s proposed XL oil pipeline in western South Dakota. The bonds would serve as financial protection against damages from oil spills and for removal of the XL pipeline if the company abandons it someday. Paul Seamans of rural Draper and David Niemi of rural Buffalo were among those who called for the bonding Tuesday night, during a public-input meeting held by the PUC as part of the permit hearing that is under way this week. “No property owner wants an abandoned gasoline station on their property,” Niemi said. Seamans, Niemi and others also called for limits on the time which TransCanada can hold the easement. Zona Vig, whose family ranches in northern Meade County, said it’s hard for ranchers to make time for extra meetings. She is secretary for the executive board of Dakota Rural Action, the only party which has actively intervened in the permit hearing. Vig said a foreign company is using American laws against them as landowners. “It is a hurtful thing,” she said. Vig called for an on-site construction inspector, paid for by TransCanada, with the authority to stop work if conditions aren’t being met. “I’m talking about somebody who doesn’t have anything to gain from them; that’s what I’m asking for,” she said...read more