SD sets November hearing for Keystone oil pipeline

The state Public Utilities Commission has set Nov. 2 as the date for its formal hearing in TransCanada Keystone Pipeline's application to build a crude oil pipeline through western South Dakota.

TransCanada is already building a pipeline through eastern South Dakota. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline is designed to run 313 miles through western South Dakota as part of a project to deliver Alberta tar sands crude oil to Gulf Coast terminals and refineries in Texas.

The three members of the PUC voted unanimously Monday to set a schedule that calls for a formal hearing to run Nov. 2-6 in Pierre on TransCanada's application for a siting permit. Other deadlines were set for written testimony that will be filed before the formal hearing.

PUC Chairman Dusty Johnson said the schedule will provide some flexibility for handling unanticipated issues that arise before the hearing. The schedule will give everyone involved in the case a chance to take part in the hearing process, he said.

Based on the hearing in the first pipeline, issues in the Keystone XL case are expected to include worries by farmers and ranchers about the pipeline's impact on their land, the chance of leaks, and the threat to underground water supplies.

TransCanada's 220-mile pipeline through eastern South Dakota is part of a project to deliver Canadian crude oil to refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.

The new project, Keystone XL, would deliver up to 900,000 barrels of crude oil a day through a 36-inch pipeline running from near Hardisty, Alberta, to existing Texas terminals near Port Arthur and Houston.

The pipeline would enter South Dakota from Montana in Harding County and then run through Butte, Perkins, Meade, Pennington, Haakon, Jones, Lyman and Tripp counties before entering Nebraska.

The South Dakota portion is estimated to cost $920 million. The company wants to begin construction in 2011 and have the pipeline operating by 2012.

The project not only needs a PUC siting permit but also a presidential permit from the U.S. State Department, which is conducting an environmental study of the project's impact.

The proposed pipeline also needs various federal and state permits, including permits for crossing streams and wetlands.