To have routed this pipeline across the Niobrara River was guaranteed to raise a storm, and routing a pipeline loaded with viscosity modifiers (surfactants?) over sand atop the Ogalalla Aquifer might not be an intelligent liability to assume. Somehow, I doubt that the pipeline company has sufficient assets to mitigate such a hazard in the event a major spill should occur (for example, due to terrorism). I don't know a lot about the region, but my guess is that Thunder Basin might have been a smarter route albeit more expensive because of the terrain.
Thackney, do you have a comment on that?
With the decades of experience of multiple crude oil and refined product pipelines crossing many different aquifers, I don't see how these sudden made-up concerns are taken seriously.
