Notley defends pipeline safety despite spill in South Dakota

Premier Rachel Notley is standing by the safety of pipelines to transport oil despite a 795,000-litre spill on the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota earlier this week.

The spill Thursday could not have come at a worse time as Nebraska is set to vote Monday on whether TransCanada Corp. can cross the state with its $8-billion Keystone XL pipeline project.

Once in Nebraska, it would connect with pipelines that feed Texas Gulf Coast refineries.

Speaking Friday, Notley said the timing of the spill was “not great,” but pipelines remain the best way to transport oil.

Notley said there had been “a marked decrease in these types of incidents” because of improvements in safety protocols and with new pipeline infrastructure, adding that the global record of pipeline safety is “improving every day.”

“What we need to do is look at all the facts and look at the overall record and the overall trend and also ensure that we are comparing it against the alternative, which is in fact a much less safe way of transporting products,” she said.

TransCanada shut down the pipeline early Thursday and as of Friday, it had sent more than 75 workers to the site of the spill.

“TransCanada has taken this incident very seriously and is working with federal and state regulatory agencies,” the company said in an update.

Environmentalists have been quick to point to the spill as reason to reject the Keystone XL project.