Fargo mayor says he had hoped for pipeline support from other cities
Andrea Domaskin, The Forum
Published Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Mayor Dennis Walaker says Fargo didn’t get much help from other cities when it protested an oil pipeline that would run near Lake Ashtabula and the Sheyenne River.
“I don’t want this thing to blow out of proportion by any stretch of the imagination,” Walaker said today. “I was hoping we would get more support, but we didn’t.”
Fargo city commissioners approved a settlement Monday with TransCanada Keystone Pipeline.
The city had expressed concerns that the pipeline could contaminate Lake Ashtabula if it leaked. The lake was created by the Bald Hill Dam on the Sheyenne River near Valley City, N.D.
Valley City supports the pipeline, said David Johnson, the city administrator.
Information the city received about the project and the company’s track record “really nullified our concerns,” Johnson said.
Valley City relies on an aquifer and the Sheyenne River for water.
City commissioners in West Fargo, which is intersected by the Sheyenne River, have never taken a position on the pipeline, West Fargo Mayor Rich Mattern said.
West Fargo relies on an aquifer. It expects to eventually build a water treatment plant and begin drawing from the Sheyenne.
