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The Pannbackers, who plan to eventually move back to the farmstead from a home in the city of Washington, said the Keystone pipeline was located amid steep hills and ravines common to Washington County. The oil damaged the north side of a hill offering a 360-degree view of surrounding countryside. Once over that ridge, the pipeline descended aggressively into a valley of cropland on the Pannbackers farm.
Chris and Bill Pannbacker said they shared unease about potential of another break in the pipeline completed a dozen years ago.
You re damn right, Bill Pannbacker said. If that line blows on top of that hill, it s going to shoot oil all over. It s going to cover that valley. I don t have the confidence in the line that I did before, I guess.
When the pipeline project was proposed, Bill Pannbacker said he recommended the company bore a tunnel through the Dakota sandstone hill rather than deal with such an acute incline. He wasn t aware at that time the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — the agency that released the report in May on the Kansas oil — issued an advisory bulletin in 2010 notifying owners and operators of recently constructed large diameter pipelines for natural gas and hazardous liquids of potential problems with weld failures.
That warning said: Misalignment during welding of large diameter line pipe may cause in-service leaks and ruptures at pressures well below 72% specified minimum yield strength (of flow).
Chris Pannbacker, who works as a reporter for The Advocate newspaper in Marysville, said she was disappointed government and company representatives had been unwilling to share weekly updates with her on activity at the site of the spill.
I had a reporter friend tell me one time that she tells corporate types that you re going to get yelled at a lot more for what you don t say than what you need to say. There s some truth in that, she said.
She said remediation efforts would eventually restore the prairie grass so the scarred hillside looked healthy to a casual observer.
Well, I think it s one thing to move on and grow grass and heal the pasture. It s another thing to know, is it fixed? Is it done?
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