Keystone at a crossroads: Tribes question running oil pipeline under Missouri, Milk rivers

The Missouri and Milk rivers merge just downstream from this major landmark in northeastern Montana. At this confluence, TransCanada is proposing to run almost a half mile of 36-inch diameter oil pipeline beneath the two rivers. Not if the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation have anything to say about it. About 60 miles downstream from this crossing, the tribes of Fort Peck tap the Missouri River for water that's treated and then distributed across northeastern Montana through a massive, federally funded water system that will serve 30,000 residents, both on and off the reservation, when it's completed. “We’re adamant they move it,” said Floyd Azure, Fort Peck tribal chairman, from his office in Poplar, where two sacred staffs adorned with eagle feathers stand behind his desk. “There’s no two ways about it.” Cleanup responses to oil spills and potential impacts of spills on water resources have become sticking points as TransCanada tries get the $8 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline project off the ground in Montana, its U.S. starting point. Chairman Floyd Azure says the Fort Peck Tribes want the current route of the Keystone XL Pipeline moved because it is upstream from the intake of the water system serving residents throughout northcentral Montana. Chairman Floyd Azure says the Fort Peck Tribes want the current route of the Keystone XL Pipeline moved because it is upstream from the intake of the water system serving residents throughout northcentral Montana.  In particular, the proposed crossing of the pipeline at the merger of two major Montana rivers is colliding with the interests of the 11,000 residents of Fort Peck, a 100-mile-by-40-mile rectangular reservation spanning four counties. Tribal leaders say the threat of an oil spill isn't just their concern...MORE