Read this interesting story from The Globe and Mail regarding the key geological challenge facing TransCanada’s controversial proposed Keystone XL.
Boiling sands are areas where sandy soil is so thin that groundwater can
bubble up through it to the surface. In Nebraska, they are found in the
Sand Hills, an ecologically sensitive region of grass-covered dunes
underlain by a giant freshwater aquifer, called the Ogallala, that
sustains agricultural production down the centre of America.
For TransCanada, Nebraska would come to form the heart of a fierce
opposition to a $7-billion pipeline project that has now been put on
hold, after a groundswell that started in Cornhusker country swept
through activist environmental groups to Washington, D.C…
…TransCanada saw the Sand Hills as any pipeline builder would – as an
engineering challenge, one that could be managed with special
construction techniques and a tailor-made plan, drafted after speaking
with local experts, to rehabilitate unearthed land.
But as TransCanada developed its Keystone XL plan, the world was changing. (Dec. 24, 2011)