Look at that! A pipeline on Native land in Saskatchewan got so excited that the president* intends to build some of its brethren down here that it could barely contain its joy. Or its oil. From The Regina Leader-Post:

"Because of the shape of the slough it's kind of like a natural basin, so it's contained in there," said Chief Connie Big Eagle of Ocean Man First Nation. "(The) contamination was about 50 feet in diameter." "It appears to be by an old well site that's on Ocean Man land," she added. "The slough is not located within the old well site, it's kind of beside it." Economy Assistant Deputy Minister Doug MacKnight defended the delay in notifying the public, saying cleanup efforts took priority. The pipeline was shut down after the breach was discovered, the province said. Tundra is leading the cleanup, with a dig on-site expected in the next two days. "The excavation I expect to start on Wednesday, to find the damaged pipe," MacKnight said. "It's not until we remove the cover and get down (that we will) be able to identify exactly where the source is. We think it's the general area, but until you remove the cover, you won't really know 100 per cent."

However, the local Native people seem fairly fed up. From Global News:

Clint had detected a greasy smell in the air for at least ten days but didn't think anything of it."I never really thought anything about it because there was some new drills down there, but didn't bother," Clint recalled. After days, he said the foul, greasy odour was starting to bother him and on Friday afternoon, he went searching for the smell – that's when he discovered the spill. He said he was "sick and angry" when he first discovered it. "It's not just a little leak when it fails, it gets real terrible real fast."

But, really, who can say?

However, with three pipelines in the area, Energy and Resources Minister Dustin Duncan said odour in the region doesn't necessarily translate to leaks. "We can't say whether or not that person was actually smelling odour from that spill or neighbouring operations," he said.

Pipelines break. The companies who build them make a calculation that it's better business to clean up the mess than to take the steps to ensure that the pipelines don't break. That is as true in Nebraska as it is in Saskatchewan.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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