Concerned about pipelines in Minnesota? Public hearings will be held this month on Enbridge plans to build its Line 3 crude oil pipeline through this part of the state.

Line 3 is the sequel to the Sandpiper pipeline. but larger and dirtier. Last year, that pipeline was cancelled, after major community opposition. Now Enbridge is back with another line. Same route, same problems; perhaps more of them.

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In the next couple of weeks, people will have an opportunity to ask some questions and make some comments on Line 3, the Canadian-based Enbridge 900,000-barrels-a-day tar sands pipeline. The court-ordered environmental review, released by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, is huge, and offers much good information, yet, brings deep concerns, including, why the no-build option is not recommended.

Questions I might ask:

If you are a native person, you might want to know why you don't matter. The Department of Commerce reports that "American Indian communities and individuals have unique health issues associated with historical trauma and structural racism ... American Indians in Minnesota have greater health disparities and poorer health outcomes compared to other racial and ethnic groups in Minnesota..."

The report continues noting, "...the uprooting of the people from their traditional lands.... creates psychological and health impacts for generations. Displacement brought about a loss of traditional ways of making a living, of providing food for the table, and of being in relationship with one another..." The report notes: "The impacts associated with the proposed project and its alternatives would be an additional health stressor on tribal communities that already face overwhelming health disparities and inequities..."

The Department of Commerce notes, "the tribal community bears the largest impact of this proposed project." And then there's this, "...A finding of 'disproportionate and adverse impacts"' does not preclude selection of any given alternative. ...This finding does, however, require detailed efforts to avoid, mitigate, minimize, rectify, reduce, or eliminate the impact associated with the construction of the Project or any alternatives."

In other words, does this mean, " deal with it?"

The Department of Commerce also noted that the preferred project route would cross more wild rice lakes than any other proposed route.

Where is the spill data? This is sort of a pretty big problem. Enbridge has tried to bar the disclosure of this information from the public, stating that some " bad actors" might use this information.

Park Rapids based Friends of the Headwaters pointed out that "...Enbridge pipelines on its mainline route are exposed above ground or shallowly buried in many locations. Google Earth can be used to find such pipelines hanging above streams. This imagery reveals that many pipelines are within a few feet of each other. The type of person who would do deliberate damage already has plenty of information about where to do such damage...."

There are some spill scenarios in the report, but none has been done, for instance, on the St. Louis River. If I were Duluth's mayor or city council, I would want to know what the plan was to protect the Great Lakes.

Abandonment: There are at least eight operating pipelines in Minnesota, and most of them have been around 30 or more years, and this is the first "abandonment" of a line and would set a precedent.

That could be a national precedent. So, let's say that this problem does not get solved now... and so another five lines or so get abandoned, and then ... well what about the next six lines? Time to find out what's under the pipes which Enbridge says are in a state of "deterioration."

This year, Rep. Rick Hanson proposed the first attempt to give landowners a right to make decisions on pipelines in their territory. The idea of tribes and the state regulating abandonment , in our pristine watersheds might be a good idea, that should likely, many landowners say, be solved before we talk about any new pipelines.

What about tar sands? Sixty percent of Minnesota opposes tar sands pipelines. Let's just say, this is the dirtiest oil in the world. And as one Canadian report notes, "No one knows what will happen when a mine has exhausted a site, shuts down its operation, and leaves. Tailings pond abandonment is an unproven technology whose success is predicated on modeling rather than real world experience ... Billions of cubic meters of contaminated water soon will be sitting untended, with no active pumping, in abandoned ponds adjacent to the Athabasca River."

And finally, there is a question of need. That's always an opinion. The Toronto Globe and Mail suggests that pipeline companies and politicians are overbuilding tar sands pipe lines by 2.4 million barrels a day capacity and it is not clear how much tar sands oil, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, will be produced in 10 or 15 years.

Now would be the time to ask if this pipe is needed, and to ask some questions about the line.

A hearing is set for 10 a.m. June 6 at Rice Lake Community Center in Bagley and on June 7 in Park Rapids from l0-1 at the Park Rapids High School, from 6-9 that night in the Palace Casino in Cass Lake, and 11-2 p.m. June 9 at the Maslowski Wellness & Research Center in Wadena. There are 22 hearings in all. -Winona LaDuke, Ponsford