STANTON -- Russ and Marla Gubbels went home Tuesday night with a couple jars and a sense of unease about the 30-inch pipeline that transports Canadian tar sand oil across their farm northeast of Randolph.
The jars were given to them by the advocacy group Bold Nebraska for gathering samples of soil and water from their land to be tested by an independent lab in Omaha.
The sense of unease was given stems from what they see as a lack of oversight and lack of information as TransCanada Corp. digs up and replaces sections of its Keystone pipeline.
"I'd kind of be an idiot not to be concerned," said Russ Gubbels, who was one of about 25 people who attended a meeting organized by Bold Nebraska and held at the Red Road Herbs Retreat & Learning Center near Stanton.
TransCanada is digging up sections of the pipeline for two different reasons, only six years after it began operating in June 2010, said Angela Pickett, one of two representative of the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that attended the meeting.
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The first surfaced in the wake of an oil leak from the pipeline discovered April 2 by a landowner near Freeman, South Dakota. A third-party investigator hired by TransCanada found a small hole in a weld that leaked about two drops per minute. It's unknown how long it leaked but officials estimate it spilled 400 barrels of crude oil.
The pipeline administration ordered TransCanada to verify the integrity of the pipeline and address any areas of concern.
The second reason TransCanada is digging up the pipeline is to replace portions that don't meet current government strength guidelines that became an issue after the pipeline was installed. Replacing those sections will allow the company to run the pipeline at higher pressure.
TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper on Wednesday said the company is not replacing girth welds and is only replacing sections to allow the pipeline to operate at higher pressure.
"We did carry out additional integrity inspections on areas that may have similar characteristics on the Keystone Pipeline as requested by PHMSA following the incident in Freeman, however, no welds or sections of pipeline were identified as needing to be repaired or replaced," Cooper said in an email.
"As such, there are no plans to carry out additional pipe replacements beyond the proactive maintenance work scheduled in order to comply with guidelines issued by PSMSA so we can operate the pipeline at a higher operating pressure."
Cooper said the work to replace sections of the pipeline is not related to the Freeman, South Dakota, leak.
In addition to Nebraska, pipeline sections are being replaced in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and South Dakota. Work started in May and is expected to continue through mid-2017. Crews have completed six section projects so far, TransCanada said.
"The Keystone Pipeline continues to operate safely and there is no public safety issue or integrity concern with the pipeline," Cooper said.
"This maintenance work is simply being done to comply with PHMSA's guidelines and so we can safely increase the operating pressure on the pipeline," he said.
Bold Nebraska founder Jane Kleeb said Nebraska landowners have no way to verify TransCanada's safety assurances.
"Our fear is slow leaks have been happening and they know that and that is why they have been doing these replacements ... We feel there should be some level of accountability of TransCanada," said Kleeb, one of the foremost grassroots organizers who opposed TransCanada's failed Keystone XL, the final phase of its Keystone pipeline network.
President Barack Obama last year killed the Keystone XL project by denying a permit TransCanda needed to build across the border between the United States and Canada.
PHMSA has had inspectors at Keystone excavation sites, Pickett said, but their reports are not made public. Kleeb said Bold Nebraska plans to file Freedom of Information Act requests demanding those reports.
Pickett said both the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have the authority to do soil and water testing.
Crystal Rhoads, an elected member of the Nebraska Public Service Commission, also spoke at the meeting encouraging people who attended to contact state regulators and lawmakers to encourage them to give the Public Service Commission more authority over pipeline issues, including safety and reporting.
Currently the Public Service Commission only has sway over approval of the path pipelines take through the state and violations of the state laws that require companies to restore land after digging it up, Rhoads said.
The Keystone pipeline network runs from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City in southern Nebraska where it splits south and east. The south section connects to refineries along the Gulf Coast while the eastern section runs to Illinois.
The pipeline administration is reviewing a request by Rep. Brad Ashford, 2nd District Democrat from Omaha, for independent testing of soil and water along sections of the pipeline that TransCanada plans to replace.