ASRWSS Approves Of Biden’s Keystone Decision
The Assiniboine and Sioux Rural Water Supply System is a critical infrastructure project which supplies potable water to residents, businesses, places of worship, schools, hospitals, clinics and government facilities on the Fort Peck Reservation and throughout the Dry Prairie Rural Water System.
The water supply from ASRWSS is delivered through the now-building 3,200 miles of pipelines to 22,000 Montana residents.
Construction and operation of the Keystone XL Pipeline would threaten ASRWSS and DPRWS, and the health and welfare of tribal members and residents of northeastern Montana. The pipeline would be bored under the Missouri and Milk Rivers upstream of the ASRWSS water intake. An oil spill into either river could not be successfully treated by the state-of-the-art treatment system of ASRWSS. Treatment of hydrocarbons is beyond the scope of all regional water treatment plants.
TC Energy, the company building the pipeline, has never responded to the design changes proposed by ASRWSS to the presidents and the secretaries of state in the Obama and Trump Administrations and has provided no plan to mitigate damages in the event a spill reaches the intake.
On Jan. 20, President Biden revoked the March 2019 permit to build the pipeline. ASRWSS finds that the Executive Order will remove the threat to potential long-term contamination and interruption of the ASRWSS water supply.
The ASRWSS is grateful President Biden has taken action to revoke the construction permit. ASRWSS will continue to take steps to protect the water supply it delivers to its customers and those of DPRWS. ASRWSS will work with the Montana congressional delegation and administration officials to ensure protections from the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Chairman of the board of directors of ASRWSS, Bill Whitehead said, “We have a solemn responsibility to ensure a safe, adequate and reliable water supply for everyone using the ASRWSS and DPRWS systems.”
