Letter to editor

Not my land, not my problem

 

 

You can’t drink oil! Water is LIfe! Over and over the peaceful demonstrators yelled. Being amongst them, you couldn’t help feel the love and passion behind their voices.

Around the world, people are standing up and speaking out against carbon based fossil fuels. The infrastructure that carriers oil and natural gas has recently been called into question.

From Peru to North Dakota, individuals are bringing attention to a crucial issue in our modern society. How and where should we transport our energy resources? No matter how you transport the fuel, there are negative consequences and accidents are bound to happen. Due to the cost effectiveness of moving products by pipelines, all other transportation methods have had to grow and increase their volume drastically.

This poses a problem because by doing so, you potentially create even larger more devastating accidents. Based on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the 20 year trend for pipeline incidents here in America, are on average over 288 incidents per year.

Well according to the United States Department of Transportation, significant pipeline incidents  are required to be reported when and if the the cost exceeds $50,000, someone is hospitalized, over five gallons of volatile liquid is released, or causes a fire.

With all these alternatives for what manifests an incident, why hasn’t wildlife or hazards to human health been considered? This is a critical question to ask those that oversee both restoration and remediation of these sites.

Now unfortunately, once an incident occurs, who and what is affected? How can one quantify the true cost inflicted upon the wildlife and people of these ecosystems? Now before you agree to a pipeline somewhere within the United States, would you be okay with a pipeline running through your backyard or worse, over the Logan River?

If you answered no to those questions, you have no right to demand others tolerate a pipeline in theirs. With an inherently flawed system, incidences are a matter of fact.

Darren Bingham is majoring in Environmental Studies, in the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University. Currently, Darren works closely on building collaboration and solidarity among all groups at his college. His university isn’t known for its activism or student involvement but has since changed with Darren’s help. Connect with Darren @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-bingham-6b0195aa?trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile_pic